Airport Concessionaire Small Disadvantaged Business (ACDBE)

Certification is in Springfield

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by Allen Waldo, MO PTAC Counselor

Springfield, MO—

As a minority and/or a woman owned business that sells goods and/or services, and if you have an interest in becoming a government contractor, one socio-economic certification that you may want to consider applying for is the Airport Concessionaire Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (ACDBE). This is for minority and/ or woman owned companies that offer various products and services to sell either as a subcontractor or to an airport directly as a prime contractor. Many airports have specific ACDBE goals and they actively encourage their prime contractors to work with ACDBE’s as subs. For example, most if not all rental car companies at any airport will be large businesses (i.e. Hertz, Enterprise, Budget). However a company that is certified as an ACDBE could be subcontracted by the rental car company for various services including: Preparation of the vehicles between rental customers; or, Providing janitorial services to clean the rental car offices.

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(not great but improved) of selling your product at the airport in the retail shops. Obviously, your product would have to be one that would make business sense for the large retailer to sell as ultimately it is their decision.

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As another example, many of the airport retail shops are large businesses (i.e. Hudson News). If you as a business owner who produces a product that could be accepted for retail sales including items such as clothing, candy, “keepsakes”, or snacks, and you are certified as an ACDBE, there is an improved chance

As for applying for the certification, the application process in Missouri must be approved through one of the two major international airports: St. Louis (Lambert) or Kansas City (KCI). Both airports offer an electronic system for completing and uploading the required documents. You as the business owner would still have to meet the social and economic criteria for this certification. The criteria can be found at this website: https:// www.transportation.gov/civil-rights/ disadvantaged-business-enterprise/ eligibility

- Samuel Knox Managing Editor

In a “nutshell”, in order to be socially disadvantaged, the guidelines from the US Department of Transportation are as follows: “….including women, Black Americans, Hispanic Americans, Native Americans, Asian-Pacific Americans, Subcontinent Asian-Pacific Americans, or other minorities found to be disadvantaged by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA).” If you qualify as being socially disadvantaged, the economic disadvantage threshold is a net financial worth of less than $1.32 million. This threshold does not include the value of the business or the equity in your primary residence.

In the preparation work for this arti-

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