TAG Farnborough Airport achieved certification under IBAC’s International Standard for Business Aircraft Handling (IS-BAH), an industry-created, voluntary code of best practices. A joint program between IBAC and the National Air Transportation Association (NATA), IS-BAH incorporates a safety management system in all aspects of FBO operations and is structured on the earlier International Standard for Business Aircraft Operations (IS-BAO).

“We have a sophisticated and well tried safety management system (SMS) that is regularly audited by our regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), but to have it audited by this independent organization with regards to our business aviation handling was important,” said Brandon O’Reilly, Farnborough’s CEO. Since TAG already had an SMS in place, the entire procedure took approximately three months.

“This recognition demonstrates that TAG Farnborough Airport shows a clear commitment to business aviation safety on the ground and goes beyond what is required to mitigate risks for its customers and employees,” said IBAC director general Kurt Edwards. The London-area business aviation gateway is the second UK facility to receive the registration, following Inflite-The Jet Centre at London Stansted Airport in August, and the ninth overall, according to IBAC.

 “I think it gives operators who come to Farnborough and any airport that is accredited to IS-BAH the comfort, the confidence that the handling company is going to look after their welfare, their aircraft and all of the handling procedures are going to be in accordance with these parameters,” said O’Reilly, noting that some operators have already cancelled their scheduled audits of the facility on the news that it had achieved the certification. “It’s more efficient, it saves time for both of us from an audit perspective. Operators don’t need to audit airports as much as they did in the past; we’ve seen evidence of this already.”

Ready for More Traffic

Authorities at Farnborough reported that it saw a 2.5-percent boost in overall operations through the first half of the year, punctuated by a 12-percent rise in traffic among airliner-derived private aircraft such as the BBJ and ACJ.

Responding to that trend, the TAG Aviation-operated facility embarked on several improvements to its FBO earlier this year. “We assumed and predicted that this growth was going to continue,” O’Reilly told AIN. “So we made a decision to build the infrastructure further at Farnborough to handle this increasing number of particularly large aircraft.”

As part of the just completed $1 million refurbishment of its passenger terminal, Passenger Lounge Five was created, a secure area separated from the rest of the passenger spaces, and tailored specifically to handle higher volume flights of more than 20 passengers, such as sports teams. “We get auto manufacturers taking dealers to particular events, and they are using larger aircraft types to do this and we want to be able to handle those customers as best we can,” O’Reilly told AIN.

Also included in the refurbishment project was a crew gym, which at press time was scheduled to open soon. According to O’Reilly, this latest addition was the direct result of internal customer surveys. “We ask what can we do better at Farnborough to make your life easier when you originate or you arrive, and the top item that was requested was to have a gymnasium,” he said. “It’s an example of us trying to ensure that crews that come through Farnborough as well as passengers are well looked after. The things that they’ve asked for, we deliver.”

Though the airport has made gains in operations year-over year, the number of noise complaints it has received has fallen by more than 50 percent, according to O’Reilly. To reduce them even further, the operators in July submitted an airspace change proposal to the CAA, which if approved would modify the airspace around the airport from uncontrolled to controlled, allowing the use of instrument departures and standard terminal arrival routines. Farnborough anticipates a decision from the regulators by year-end.