Minutes:
Mr Will Curtis, Managing Director, London Biggin Hill Airport gave a presentation to the Partnership.
London Biggin Hill Airport was situated at the southern tip of the London Borough of Bromley, 12 miles from the centre of London. It was the only dedicated international business aviation airport in the capital, and housed 50 business jets, 65 commercial aviation activities and had 1,000 employees.
In the UK, there were very few places where aviation companies could set up operations. Previously companies had based themselves at Heathrow, and once Heathrow became too busy they moved to Luton which had spare capacity and runway availability. Over the summer, runway slots became unavailable at Luton and flights were displaced to Biggin Hill, Stansted and Farnborough. A Government announcement was expected in the next couple of weeks regarding airport expansion, but it would be 2030 before a useable runway would be available.
London Biggin Hill Airport focused on the business and general aviation sector, and had a vision as a ‘London Gateway for Business’. As a designated UK Port of Entry with Border Agency on site, competitive opening hours and no runway slots, each visit to London Biggin Hill Airport would bring in between £3k-£20k. They were an ‘Aircraft Home Base’ for aircraft owners. For each new aircraft based at the airport, it generated an average spend of $5m and created eight new jobs. The third part of their vision was to be an ‘Aircraft Service Centre’. Aircrafts would be on site for an average of 6-8 weeks whilst undergoing in depth inspections costing around $5m, half of which would be spent on labour. Four aircrafts could be worked on at one time, which would create 54 movements a year and 400 jobs in the long term, all of which would see gross value added to the community.
The development of Biggin Hill as a centre for aviation-led economic growth was supported by planning policies including the Local Plan which supported the development of nearly £1m sq. ft. and the ability to create up to 2,300 new jobs in the sector. They were part of the LoCATE (London Centre for Aviation Technology and Enterprise) project, a partnership that brought together public and private sector organisations that want to drive forward with joined up thinking in relation to promoting London Biggin Hill Airport as a centre base for business, industry and planning.
London Biggin Hill Airport was increasingly becoming an attractive offer for businesses. Extended opening hours had been agreed, and would see the airport operating between 6.30am – 11.00pm on weekdays and 8.00am – 10.00pm on weekends from 2017. It was noted that since March 2015 when the initial Council decision regarding operating hours had been made, the onward trends of growth and their London Market Share had increased. This showed that the decision was a driver of economic growth and would continue to be so. All weather access was now assured as new precision GPS approaches for both runways were being implemented. This would allow aircraft to come in to land from both directions, and would reduce the amount of traffic causing noise and disturbance whilst circling over Bromley.
The airport also offered a helicopter shuttle service which was very popular with clients, particularly during rush hour. Castle Air operated this service which took only six minutes to travel from Biggin Hill to the London Heliport based in Battersea at a cost of £2,300. A complimentary door-to-door chauffeur car service was then offered for clients to reach their final destination.
Planning permission had been granted for a 4 star hotel, 50 bed hotel, with the ability to extend to 75 beds in the future, and construction was due to commence in 2017. Members of the Partnership queried the choice of building a 4 star hotel on site, considering the clientele that used the airport. Mr Curtis responded that the hotel would not be used by airport’s clients, the customers would be aircrew and visiting engineers.
Customer complaints were considered to be a high priority at London Biggin Hill Airport. They currently received on average 10-15 complaints a quarter, the lowest number of complaints for an airport in the UK. In contrast, London Heathrow Airport received 95,000 complaints last year. A further priority was to provide jobs for local residents, with an aim to keep younger and older generations together. A new London Aviation Technical College would be established on site and operated by London South East Colleges. The location was still under negotiation, but it was planned to train 120 engineering apprentices a year from September 2018.
The Chairman thanked Mr Curtis for his fascinating presentation, and noted that work was underway on the Heritage Museum next to the Chapel at Biggin Hill and was due to open in spring 2018.