European and Asian ground handling provider Euro Jet is celebrating its continued growth this week at EBACE 2019, with the expectation of serving more than 10,000 flights in 2019 throughout its core region of Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Over the past year, the company expanded its network, adding new complementary crew lounges at its locations in Sofia, Bulgaria; Warsaw, Poland; Belgrade, Serbia; and Zagreb, Croatia.

This year, it plans to open a renovated lounge at Bucharest’s Baneasa International Airport. Other facilities include Poprad, Slovakia; Dubrovnik, Croatia; Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic; Constantia, Romania; and Tivat, Montenegro.

Its flagship hangar location at Prague’s Vaclav Havel International Airport has also seen growth, having earned a handling license and hired additional staff. This year, the company had 72 ground personnel pass NATA’s Safety 1^st Professional Line Service Training course. It was among the first ground support providers in Eastern Europe and Central Asia to have its handling personnel certified.  

Euro Jet (Booth E61) provides ground handling supervision at more than 200 airports, including coordinating all handling arrangements with the airport authority and local handling company, organizing permits, setting up fuel, fulfilling crew logistics such as hotels and transportation, and assisting with catering. It can also provide credit to qualifying customers. To handle all these functions, it developed its own customized software at its Prague operations control center (OCC).

“This year we have taken significant steps to deal with the increased amount of flights by implementing new technology in our OCC, in addition to adding more supervisors in our catering, hotels and fuel department,” said Paul Lourenco, the company’s director of strategic planning and development. “These changes were essential to providing the highest quality of service during the busy summer months, as well as one-time events that often double the amount of business coming in.”

Recent examples include Romania’s EU Presidency Summits in Bucharest and Sibiu, as well as the Ice Hockey World Championship currently under way in Slovakia’s Bratislava and Kosice. Coming up will be the UEFA Europa League football final in Baku, Azerbaijan, on May 29 and the European Games in Minsk, Belarus, in late June.

“Every year I have watched our flight volume increase significantly year-on-year throughout our core region and in other parts of the world," said Gareth Danker, director of the Prague-based company’s global sales and marketing. "The strong global economy continues to allow the private aviation industry to grow and we are feeling all the positive effects as the demand for superior customer service in both flight coordination and on-the-ground support continues to climb to an all-time high.”