Attending EBACE for their third year, Newquay Cornwall Airport and its fixed based operator (FBO) Weston Aviation* are pleased to launch their brand new FBO Facility that provides clients and crews with a VIP lounge, self-briefing facilities and direct controlled zone airside access with private parking.
The new facilities come at a time when Weston Aviation has reported a 14% increase in executive handling in the first quarter of 2010. Nick Weston, Managing Director of Weston Aviation has been delighted with the response from the industry to the new facilities. ‘We are committed to providing a professional, personal service to all of our clients. We are always challenging ourselves with the view to expand on the already high level service of the traditional FBO by offering a totally fresh approach’
Al Titterington, Newquay Cornwall Airport’s newly appointed Managing Director commented, ‘We are pleased at how executive aviation is developing here at the Airport and we are working closely with Weston Aviation to develop and expand the executive aviation side of our business. Weston Aviation’s FBO compliments the Airport’s business strategy for developing services and facilities which utilise our unique selling points over other regional airports, including a runway in excess of 2,700 metres at the heart of a 325 hectare estate, which is prime for developing aviation sectors such as executive aviation .’
Newquay Cornwall Airport is the gateway to much of the South West of England. An hour’s flight from the major urban centres in the UK – London, Manchester, Edinburgh, etc, it offers something for everyone. Cornwall, the renowned surf capital of England, boasts a stunning coastline, fine beaches, plentiful golf courses, historic sea ports and award winning cuisine, thanks largely to celebrity chefs Rick Stein and Jamie Oliver’s sizeable investment in Cornwall.
Because of the airport’s westerly and coastal position and its long runway it is increasingly popular as a technical stop for transatlantic flights
Weston Aviation opened its executive/business aviation facility at Newquay in 2003. With a further additional UK FBO location at Durham Tees Valley Airport in the North East Of England which is also being showcased at this year’s EBACE. Weston Aviation’s Managing Director Nick Weston explained further “We found that at each of our airports, we had a demand for each of our different aviation services and we felt that we could serve our clients best on a regional basis, so we now have three regional Business Aviation Centres with experienced staff that can offer private jet charter, cargo aircraft or ground handling at Newquay Cornwall or Durham Tees Valley Airports. The company’s success so far in 2010 has led to the creation of new management positions in the company and additional staff at all locations. At Newquay Cornwall Airport, we have the full support and encouragement of the commercial and operations teams and this has been a major factor in enabling us to achieve our continued growth,”
Newquay Cornwall Airport can accommodate a range of medium and wide body jets from the new VLJs beginning to enter service in Europe to the heavier jets such as the Airbus ACJ/A319, Boeing BBJ, Embraer Legacy and Bombardier Challenger Series, all of which are now frequent visitors to the airport.
Both companies are inviting EBACE delegates and media to sample the award winning Camel Valley Vineyard at stand 1070 on Wednesday 5th May at 13:00 and discuss any business further.
How useful as an operator or charter broker of corporate / vip flights do you find the presence of FBO’s and airports at EBACE ? . Speaking only from the prospective of my personal time at Lydd (EGMD), whilst we found it useful to have a presence to gain awareness, but the use of a particular FBO / Airport was often customer driven. Do for example North American operators find potential new airports and FBO partners at EBACE? Let me know what you think?
Roy – 29th April 2010
In a past life I worked in the world of IT sales and enjoyed it immensely, and made some good friends who where either customers or fellow colleagues.
Like most professional sales people I attended numerous sales training courses, seminars and events in order to “improve my game” and better understand how I could improve my chances of sales success, then I stumbled upon something very powerful that I still make use of nearly every day, and it’s a useful business tool even outside sales.
At the time I was working for DEC (Digital Equipments) largest European distributor and had been invited by a regional sales director to speak to his sales team. I did my pitch and I elected to stay for the rest of the day and it is perhaps one of the smartest business decisions I’ve ever made.
Each member of the sales team was asked to outline their major prospects over the coming months and give an overview of what they where working on.
One of the sales team was enthusing over a particular project prospect they had, and the sales director said, “this is all very good, but what is the impending event?” and at that moment I noticed that the prospect reporting sheets also had a box marked impending event.
The sales representative said that at this time he had not clearly identified the impending event because he was not close enough to the customer, so the sales director said “no impending event, more than likely – no sale this quarter.”
Over lunch all of this was explained to me, Impending events are really important things to understand, because this is what drives the customers buying cycle and indicates if the sale is likely to happen and when it is likely to happen.
In business most businesses put off making a decision until the last moment, because it is always wise to keep your options open, however if an impending event is identified, the seller can understand what the likely actions and timing of the customer might be.
For example a software licence might need to be renewed on a specific date, so if an alternative vendor wants to pitch he must do so in time for a transition to occur before the existing software must be renewed for X years. Another example maybe that your competitor is about to launch a new product that makes yours obsolete and you need to plan for a new product launch.
A printer may need to be aware of the dates of the major trade shows for his customers, because extra or new marketing collateral might be needed.
The closer you are to your customer the better you are likely to be given the information you need to identify the impending event and plan your marketing and sales activities accordingly.
Ironically the world of aviation has thousands of impending events every day as each aircraft rotates or lands.
Roy 7th April 2010
