The Spokane Airport Board is trying to negotiate a contract with the longtime fixed-base operator at its Felts Field general aviation airport here, after its request this spring for proposals for such an operator there netted no responses.

A fixed-base operator, or FBO for short, provides such services as aircraft fueling and maintenance, hangar space, flight training, and aircraft rental and leasing. Spokane-based Felts Field Aviation Inc. has been providing those services at Felts Field for more than 30 years under a property lease with the Airport Board, but without an FBO contract.

Airports spokesman Todd Woodard says Felts Field Aviation's optional renewals on its current long-term lease, which was last renewed in 1988, expire in September.

Larry Schmedding, general manager of Felts Field Aviation, which employs about 15 people and has a fleet of four aircraft, says the company didn't submit a proposal when the Airport Board sought requests for proposals in March.

"There were certain terms and conditions in their RFP that we weren't interested in," Schmedding says, but declines to discuss it further because the company is in negotiations with the board. He says that an agreement suggested under the RFP would become a sort of "all-in-one" pact, rather than the ground lease that Felts Field Aviation has held for decades.

Felts Field Aviation's current lease includes the premise that it would operate a full-service FBO at the airport, which it does, Woodard says. The Airport Board, which operates both Felts Field and Spokane International Airport, received no responses to its RFP invitation, Woodard says.

He says SIA has an obligation to bid the contract publicly, taking into account also the results of tenant and user needs identified through a recent survey. Woodard says that the primary point of negotiation currently is the amount of rent the Airport Board is seeking.

"It's a fiduciary responsibility we have to make sure our contracts meet what the market will demand," Woodard says. "The rental rates are based on market rents."

Woodard says the airport board didn't discuss the proposed contract at its most recent meeting, but expects to find a solution before Felts Field Aviation's lease expires this fall.