Facility Development
Environmental Analyses
Financial Planning
Program Managment

What We Do
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Airport Planning & Development Services

“Let our advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.”
- Winston Churchill

More now than ever, aviation’s dynamic environment requires the vigilant attention of every airport management professional. Airports are the “front door” to the community and must provide adequate services and facilities to meet the air transportation needs of the traveling public. Airline service restructuring, demand for aeronautical services, new design standards – any of these or other issues can make planning efforts functionally obsolete before the report’s ink is dry.

Decision-making in uncertain times can be a difficult discipline to master but QUADREX stands ready to assist airport management succeed by bringing the necessary expertise and resources along with its creative talent to address emerging issues. QUADREX has provided a diverse mix of airport planning and development services to over 100 airports in the U.S. and offers this experience to help airport management meet these challenges.

Specific airport planning and development services provided by QUADREX include:

Facility Development

  • Airport & Terminal Master Planning
  • Aviation Activity Forecasts
  • Strategic and Scenario Forecasting
  • Facility Feasibility Studies
  • Facility Layout and Planning
  • Airfield/Terminal Development Alternatives
  • Obstruction Evaluations
  • Specialized Facilities (Navaids/ATCT/FTZ)
  • Project Scheduling & Cost Estimates
  • Infrastructure & Access Planning

Environmental Analysis

  • NEPA Compliance Documentation (CatX/EA)
  • Aircraft & Ground Noise Analyses (INM)
  • Air Quality Analyses (EDMS)
  • Impact Mitigation Strategies
  • Land Use Compatibility Planning (FAR Part 150)
  • Noise Abatement Programs

Program Management

  • AIP & State Grant Administration
  • Planning/Design/ Construction Management
  • Agency Coordination/Consultation
  • Community Relations
  • Conflict Resolution/Facilitation


This is not just a list of what we can do. Quadrex has documented experience in every aspect of these services and maintains them as core competencies.


Airport Financial & Business Planning

"The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now."
-Chinese Proverb

Airport management has found that they are not immune to vagaries of national, regional, and local economies. The financial pressures of maintaining consistently positive cash flows against increasing operational and maintenance costs have forced airports to focus on enhancing revenues while reducing costs. QUADREX understands that airports today need to be managed much more seriously as business enterprises, emulating commercial real estate agencies but with the added responsibilities for ensuring aviation safety, complying with federal regulations, and reacting to sudden business decisions made by tenant airlines and outside their control or influence.

QUADREX provides assistance to airport management professionals for identifying and evaluating their financial objectives and to develop sound financial plans for improving the bottom line. We help identify means for decreasing airport operating expenses and debt service exposure while investigating strategies for increasing revenues from both aeronautical and non-aeronautical activities. We also help stage projects for federal grant funding and to develop capital improvement programs that are re-focused on projects that can generate revenues.

Specific airport financial planning services provided by QUADREX include:

Capital Improvement Programs

  • Project Justification & Need
  • Detailed Cost Estimates
  • Federal & State Grant Gaming
  • Passenger Facility Charge (PFC) Program Development

Expense Reduction & Revenue Enhancement

  • Alternatives & Cost/Benefit Analyses
  • Energy Audits & Performance Contracting
  • Break-even Analyses
  • Commercial Real Estate Broker Programs
  • Properties & Lease Analyses

Strategic Business Planning

  • Comparative Analyses & Benchmarking
  • Strategic Forecasting & Pro Forma Analyses
  • Assets & Opportunities (SWOT) Analyses
  • Financial Impact Analyses
  • Airport Regional Values
  • Rates & Charges Enterprise Plan
  • Airport Marketing Plans


Each of these services (and many others not listed) is vital to the financial success of an airport. QUADREX stands ready to bring its broad and successful experience to help airport management meet its challenging financial environment.


Airspace & Air Traffic Control

“Aviation is the branch of engineering that is least forgiving of mistakes.”
-BFreeman Dyson

Protection of the airport’s airspace from the threat of urban encroachment is a critical responsibility for airport management. Increasing pressures from developers, communications networks, and alternative energy interests all conspire against the airport’s ability to maintain adequate areas clear of obstructions and other incompatible land uses. Failure to protect the runway’ airspace can seriously diminish the ability to ensure safe aircraft departures and approaches.

At the same time, many smaller airports participate in the Federal Contract Tower (FCT) program which provides air traffic control services paid by FAA. Currently, there are over 250 FCT air traffic control tower facilities throughout the US and its territories. Most all of these FCT sites undergo a periodic evaluation of the operational costs measured against safety and efficiency benefits provided by ATC services.

For over 20 years, QUADREX has served as the airport community’s leading expert in FAA’s Benefit/Cost methodology for evaluating the continued viability of FCT facilities. With project experience at over 60 airports, QUADREX has been able to preserve the funding of many of the facilities that have been threatened with termination of FAA funding and for others, minimizing the cost-sharing contribution, and saving clients several million dollars over the life of the program. In addition, many new ATCT facilities have been developed and commissioned since 1994 with the help of QUADREX.

Services that QUADREX provides in the assisting airport management with airspace and air traffic control issues include:

Airspace Evaluations

  • 14 CFR Part 77 Height Hazard Zoning
  • FAA Form 7460-1 Administration
  • Obstruction & Land Use Compatibility Evaluations
  • Shadow Studies (Line-of-Sight & Navaids)

Benefit/Cost Analyses (B/CA)

  • APO 90-7 B/C Analyses
  • New FCT Applications
  • FCT Cost-sharing Negotiations
  • Additional Operating Hours Applications

Air Traffic Control Tower (ATCT) Development

  • FCC Frequency Coordination
  • ATCT Equipment Planning & Specifications
  • ATCT Site Evaluation & Selection
  • Safety Risk Management (SRMD) Review

ATCT Development Program Management

  • Facility Cost Estimating
  • Project Delivery Coordination
    • Design/Bid/Build
    • Design/Build
    • Contractor-at-Risk
  • Development/Leaseback/Purchase Options


As a member of the U.S. Contract Tower Association (USCTA), QUADREX retains its leading edge in the administration of the FCT program. We strive to continue providing our expertise for the benefit of each our clients and to the FCT community at large.