After several years in the shadows of EBAN’s top ten FBOs, Aero Services Handling at Le Bourget rocketed into second place this year. Md Steve Gulvin gave us his reaction: “Obviously we’re very pleased. There are certain things that we’ve always concentrated on and now I think they’re really being noticed.

“Our main philosophy is that we always give as good a service to the crew as we do to the passengers. We don’t disappear once the passengers have left the airport, we stay with the crew right until they’ve departed as well. We find that it’s very important to the crew and we’ve hired people who excel in this type of service.”

Gulvin continued: “This is a philosophy I was taught 20 years ago. It’s normally the crew who will make the decision about who they use, not the vip in the back seat. Far too often, people think if the passengers are well taken care of, everything will run smoothly. However, if you haven’t got the right paperwork ready for the crew, that’s where it’s going to fall down.”

One area Aero Services has always found difficult to develop is its building. As many are aware, it is a listed building – in fact, it was built in the 1920s prior to Charles Lindbergh’s first Atlantic crossing – and therefore protected from mass alteration. Said Gulvin: “You can only do so much with the facility. We’re a bit restricted in our expansion not only because of our building but also because we’ve got listed buildings either side of us.”

Aero Services has been providing handling services at Le Bourget for the last six years and for this reason, still has more custom it believes it can gain. Gulvin explained: “We’re still relatively new to Le Bourget and

when you look at people who have been using the same facility for 15 to 20 years, we find people are of

the mind that it’s better the devil you know – they’d rather stick with someone where the service isn’t perhaps 100 per cent but they know what they are getting.”

Aero Services achieved high marks from voting pilots in the areas of technical support, professionalism and operations. Said Gulvin: “Technically we’re lucky in that we have full-time engineers who are there for our own aircraft but are also on standby to help with visiting aircraft. They can’t sign off on a lot of aircraft but if an aircraft needs oxygen or nitrogen, tyres topping up or a wheel change, they can do all that. A lot of others can’t do that at Le Bourget, they have to hire in a third party.”

Operationally, says Gulvin, Aero Services has an advantage over others in that it is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. He said: “We’re the only facility here which has that. What we’ve found after 10pm – or whenever people close – is that any diversions into Le Bourget are automatically handled by ourselves because we’re open. So it helps that we have someone in the office around the clock as opposed to being able to send someone in at an hour’s notice. We’re physically manned 24 hours a day.”

Asked about perceived fluctuating standards across Europe’s FBOs at the moment, Gulvin said: “I think you have to look at what competition is available at the FBOs that are not scoring as highly as others. I think Le Bourget is a good example of the improvements that have been made in France because I think, if you go back five or six years, it was the first time that a French FBO had ever scored in your survey.

“Now there’s normally a French FBO either in the top ten or thereabouts and I think that comes about because of the competition at Le Bourget. In places where you’ve got just one FBO, the lack of competition means you might get a problem.”

That said, Gulvin is of the opinion that standards have improved dramatically in Europe. He said: “There’s much more of an American influence now. People realise that there’s money to be made but only if you’re going do the job properly.”

Comparing FBOs in the States with those in Europe, he said: “By and large, FBOs in the States have a lot better facilities as far as the lounges and fitness centres are concerned but I actually think that if you compare service for service, European FBOs are better than American ones.

“Firstly, when you’re flying within the States from one FBO to another, there are less complications involving customs and immigration and problems like this that you would get flying within Europe.

“Also, when an aircraft arrives, I think the coordination between the various authorities – the catering, crew transportation, hotels – is a lot better in Europe. One of the problems in the US is that there’s a different person in charge of each area. Over here, we tend to have one handling supervisor which in my opinion, makes for a better service.”

Meanwhile, Air Service Management (ASM) in conjunction with Aero Services Handling has appointed Bob Catt to the newly created position of sales and marketing consultant for Europe. Catt recently left Jeppesen after nearly 20 years working in its UK office.

Gulvin commented: “I have known Bob for 18 years and am always amazed at the amount of people he knows in corporate aviation. We feel that someone with his contacts and experience can assist us greatly in promoting our FBO services and also Aero Services’ fleet of corporate executive jets which now includes an Airbus A319CJ.”