Castle & Cooke Aviation yesterday opened its new "fixed-base operation" at Honolulu International Airport to service private business and personal airplanes.

The facility features an 18,000-square-foot hangar, 60,000 square feet of office space and a customer service lounge. Castle & Cooke Aviation purchased the old Circle Rainbow building on Lagoon Drive last June and spent more than $5 million to renovate the facility.

Castle & Cooke Aviation, a division of Castle & Cooke Inc., has been in operation for 27 years and has similar fixed-base operations at Van Nuys Airport near Los Angeles and Paine Field in Everett, Wash. This is the company's first FBO in Hawai'i.

Tony Marlow, general manager of the Honolulu facility, said he has four tenants here and they are owners of leisure and corporate aircraft. All are local residents or businesses, but Marlow declined to name them.

Marlow said the FBO also is available to any general aviation or business aircraft that need to be serviced. The facility provides fuel service, maintenance, storage, ground handling, catering, lavatory cleaning and other services.

"Think of it as a private terminal facility and we take care of all the details," Marlow said.

He said despite the rising cost of fuel, facilities that service private aircraft are in demand.

"The clients that fly these types of airplanes have made a pretty large investment in the airplane and while the escalating price of fuel is a factor, it's kind of small in the overall picture of operating the airplane," Marlow said.

"If you look at it just on scale with the cost of the airplane and what they need to use it for, whether it's for their own private use or for security purposes or for convenience, with the general aviation airplanes you drive out to the airplane, you get on the airplane and off you go. You don't have to work through the hassles of airline travel."