London Oxford Airport earns fifth place in Eurocontrol’s annual statistics

                      
Oxford Airport is now fifth in Eurocontrol’s annual statistics and handles more business aviation traffic than Stansted and London City Airports.

Andi Pargeter, managing director, confirmed that the daily business aviation movements have grown by 98% since the UK’s pre-recession peak in 2007.

In recent developments, Hangar8 has added two, home-based Global Express aircraft (pictured above), which are both are available for charter.

These were based until recently at Farnborough Airport and now offer Hangar8 the opportunity to offer long-range charters from London Oxford Airport to destinations such as Washington, Chicago, New York, the Caribbean or Mumbai, India.

Hangar8 has already flown customer charters to Washington DC and Bahrain. London Oxford Airport has also experienced a growth in residency of other Bombardier aircraft including Challenger 604 and 605 models in addition to Learjet 35 and 45 business jets, all supported with home based line and base MRO support.  In addition, Hangar8 recently gained approvals to provide maintenance support on the Global Express with their Oxford-based EASA-145 MRO operation, first established last year.

James Dillon-Godfray, business development director at London Oxford Airport, said: “Over the past few years the airport has ramped up its capabilities to cater for larger business jet types, investing in ground handling equipment, higher fire and rescue capability (now Cat 6 RFF). In 2011 we increased the licensed take-off distances of the runway, so now permit longer range missions for aircraft such as these Globals.”

He added: “Helicopter operations in and out of London’s only commercially licensed heliport in Battersea, Barclays London Heliport, are also encouraged to interline with jets at Oxford with the offer of 50% landing fee discounts at both ends. Both airports share common ownership.”

Cessna recently opened a sales office headed by regional director, Steve McKenna. The move follows a consolidation of the European sales dealership network and UK representation at the close of 2012.

McKenna said “’Oxford is a natural home for us. It is an expanding business aviation centre with excellent links to the capital and importantly remains particularly GA-friendly, which, for our customer base is essential with the continued economic pressures within the industry.”

Cessna return to Oxford after a five year absence as they had a dealership and an authorised service centre when CSE Aviation were at the airport.

Whilst AirMed has been a resident at Oxford Airport for nearly 30 years and is better known for its air ambulance provision, they are also rapidly expanding their Cessna authorised service and part sales centre. Later in 2013 they will be performing the first ever UK conversion of a Cessna 208 turboprop on to floats.

CAE is another new company at the airport, having taken over the Oxford Aviation Academy (OAA) in December 2012. OAA are expanding the fleet with new training aircraft, all the new aircraft will be fitted with Garmin 1000 EFIS flight decks. The school will offer MPL courses and are currently training pilots for a number of airlines. CAE Oxford Aviation Academy is now the largest ab initio flight training network in the world with the capacity to train more than 2,000 cadets per year across 11 flight schools on five continents.

In 2013, Oxford is celebrating Oxfordjet FBO fifth anniversary and Jetex Flight Support, the UAE-based flight support and handling specialist opened a new flight planning lounge at the airport.  The ‘Jetex Lounge’ has new furnishings and aeronautical wall charts with three visiting pilot PCs. These PC’s are available for a whole range of things that flight crew will need to prepare for flight from planning to obtaining weather reports.

The partnership with Jetex, the airport’s first external partner, forms part of a wider strategy to attract new customers, in particular those from the Middle East and the US.

Both London Oxford Airport and the Barclays London Heliport will be exhibiting at EBACE in Geneva later this month.