Midwest Executive Aviation has just taken over the handling of all executive aircraft at Newquay Cornwall airport. The company takes over from British Airways. Midwest already runs an FBO at Coventry Airport, but has high hopes for the new location and its potential.

EBAN spoke to operations director Craig Middleton and operations manager Mike Greenway about this latest development.

“I actually had the idea some time ago that there was an opportunity for an FBO down there,” Greenway said. “British Airways were doing it originally and they showed no signs of giving up their position anytime soon. Then came the announcement that they were pulling out of a few stations, including Newquay,” he continued.

“When we heard that, which was back in the summertime, our ears pricked up again and we made further approaches to the airport,” Middleton said. “We continued talking to them during the summer and it went from there; they obviously needed someone to look after the business aircraft that use the airport.”

Speaking of the facilities at the site, Middleton said: “It’s got a very big runway and a good-sized terminal. There aren’t many scheduled services, but there is a steady flow of business aircraft and obviously our intention is to increase that,” he added.

Newquay Cornwall airport has a relatively small level of traffic, but has recently received an increase in larger aircraft.

“They seem to be getting half a dozen aircraft through a day and in the last week they’ve had a Global Express and a couple of BBJs,” explained Greenway, “which is obviously the sort of traffic you want. They do get a steady flow of aircraft such as the Citations and Beech 200.

“We think it’s a part of the country that is growing, in terms of people having second homes in the region and going for weekend visits,” continued Greenway.

In the short-term, the plan is to become established at the airport, but long-term, Midwest has much bigger plans for the new FBO. As Middleton explained: “We’re going to try and promote Newquay as a transatlantic refuelling stop. We think there is great potential,” he said. “We’ll have to wait and see how it goes, but we’ll push it.

“It’s got a long runway, it’s on the way between Europe and North America and we think there’s a way we can make it viable as an alternative to Prestwick and Shannon, which have traditionally been the stopping off points,” he insisted.

“We don’t see any reason, once we make it attractive to them, why people won’t consider Newquay,” he said. The company aim is to have a full FBO soon.

“At the moment we’re going to be working from inside the terminal building with our own office, but we do aim to have a proper FBO building with a lounge, because there isn’t one there,” Middleton added.

We asked him how long he felt it would take for them to settle in at the new airport. “From our experiences at Coventry, I would imagine that it could be the best part of six months,” he said. “You’ve got to

get people to know you and you yourself need to become familiar with the surroundings.

“Having said that, our new operations manager Amanda Tooley and operations officer Sarah Crowe are ex-BA staff with 15-years experience,” he continued.

Does Greenway have any worries about running two FBOs, we asked? “I don’t have any concerns about running the two FBOs at the moment,” he said. “Our employees from Newquay will also be visiting us here to see how we do things at Coventry and we’ll visit them,” he insisted. “With the amount of traffic that we’re handling at the moment, or that we’re predicted to have at Newquay – it shouldn’t be a problem, he said.

Midwest will be promoting the new location to all of its current British charter operating customers. “The Midwest staff at Newquay know the regular operators anyway, so they will be having their own talks,” Greenway continued, “but we have already spoken to several brokers who are very interested in our

new location.”

EBAN asked operations director Middleton about future plans for Midwest. He replied: “My hopes for Midwest Exec in the future are to have a chain of FBOs at airports around the UK and Europe.” He concluded: “We pride ourselves on our service.

Our Coventry FBO came fifth in EBAN’s FBO Survey last year and we would like to continue our

service levels at our new location at Newquay airport.”