Icelandic FBO SouthAir offers what it describes as a red-carpet stepping stone for corporate aircraft operators crossing the forbidding North Atlantic. The two-year-old facility is one of the newest members of ExxonMobil’s Avitat chain of FBOs.

The company has been in business for the best part of three decades, but for much of this time it focused on less salubrious activities, such as flying Icelandic cod down to the UK and France. In 1999, it moved-up market when it opened a 13,000-sq-ft executive terminal at Keflavik’s Leifur Eriksson International Airport. However, at the downtown airport in Iceland’s capital Reykjavik (28 mi away), SouthAir faces stiff competition from Flight Services, which excelled in the 2001 European FBO Survey published in May by Aviation International News.

In addition to a modern terminal with comprehensive facilities for corporate aircraft passengers and pilots and an in-house flight kitchen, the SouthAir complex at Keflavik Airport includes a 5,625-sq-ft hangar. The FBO is also a partner to flight-planning group Baseops International.

According to manager Kris Albertsson, SouthAir currently receives about 80 business aircraft per month and has “the cheapest handling prices in the North Atlantic.” Visiting crews often take the chance to relax at Iceland’s famous Blue Lagoon volcanic spa.

SouthAir is one of three European FBOs in the ExxonAvitat chain, the other two being Metro Business Aviation at London Stansted Airport and Euralair at Paris Le Bourget.