Press Release
Issued by .
August 3, 2010
Assistair Business Aviation Handling, the fixed base operation (FBO) division of the Mallorca-based aviation company Assistair Group, marked the first six months of 2010 with an optimistic outlook. Business across the independent Spanish company's five FBOs, Palma, Ibiza, Barcelona, Valencia and Gerona has seen an increase in activity of 10% compared with the same period in 2009.
"Whilst the economic climate in Spain, and Europe is still very difficult we have seen an increase year on year," says Catherine Gaisenband, CEO of Assistair Group. "It has been a very challenging 12 months with a challenging start to the year, but we have seen growth from a variety of sectors including private clients, which now form about 12% of overall handling. We are noticing that corporate business is also slowly developing again having come to a standstill in 2009. We handle commercial flights into Palma too and this has seen positive development with new clients arriving from France and Eastern Europe," she continues.
Assistair saw their busiest weekend this year at Valencia, when the F1 European Grand Prix took place in June. Over a four day period the company handled some 30 aircraft, including private and corporate jets, with passengers varying from VIPs, and celebrities through to those actively involved in the F1 event. "We worked very hard to make the clients and crew as comfortable as possible," says Christine Sastre of Assistair's operations department, "including arranging for jets to taxi right to the terminal. For the larger aircraft this prevented a 15-minute drive from the aircraft, thus speeding up their transition through the airport."
Two new bases were opened in 2009 and Gerona is seeing business develop as the industrial area of Catalunya expands despite the crisis. Ibiza was the second new FBO in 2009 and 2010 will represent the first full summer season Assistair will operate there. "We can see that the FBO will have a busy summer season as increasingly clients holiday in Europe rather than long haul which is good for the Ibiza FBO," says Gaisenband.
"We continue to focus on attention to detail, and try to make ourselves as cost effective as possible," says Gaisenband, "this is why our clients, who have been quiet for the last year, are now beginning to return to us. Looking forward to the next six months we plan to sustain the growth, even though the economic environment is still making it difficult."
