For the second time in two weeks, the Redmond, Ore. city council has approved the operation of an FBO at Roberts Field Airport. Butler Aircraft Services, which has had a presence at Roberts since the 1940s, received unanimous agreement by the council to continue providing FBO services under a five-year new sublease from KCAero. For more than a year, Butler and the airport authority had been locked in dispute over recently instituted minimum operating standards.
Butler had been the lone service provider on the field since 2010, when it bought out Redmond Air and moved into its facility. The company presently occupies approximately four acres on the airport, including a 6,600-sq-ft terminal with an attached 4,000-sq-ft Part 145 repair station and an 18,000-sq-ft hangar that can accommodate aircraft as large as a Falcon 900.
Earlier this month, the city council voted unanimously to allow Oregon-based Leading Edge Aviation to establish a new FBO at Roberts Field, which features a pair of 7,000-foot-plus runways and a helipad. Leading Edge is expected to begin operations by early next month from the refurbished former Butler Aircraft Services terminal.