Oxford Airport Recognised as Europe’s Best Business Aviation Airport

The London Oxford Airport and OxfordJet team had cause to celebrate at the second annual European Sapphire Pegasus awards in Prague on Friday evening, 28th April, when they were awarded the accolade of Best Business Aviation Airport.

The award was accepted by Kieran Meikle, London Oxford Airport’s Airside Operations Manager from Sapphire Pegasus’ Peter Bradfield, in front of an audience of international business aviation professionals at the city’s Boscolo Hotel.Managing Director of London Oxford Airport, Andi Alexander, commented: “We’re very happy with this recognition, especially so because we were judged by our industry peers. It is an acknowledgement of all the hard work from our excellent team and the investments we’ve made in our business over recent years.”The award comes as London Oxford – which is home to some 65-based aircraft – continues to improve its business aviation offering with investments in new RNAV LVP approaches, enhanced airfield lighting and systems to reduce minima and enhance accessibility due to be rolled out in the lead-up to 2020.

London Oxford Airport was one of the very first in Europe to gain IS-BAH accreditation for its in-house FBO, Oxfordjet; a standard still only held by a handful of European FBOs. Additionally, the airport was the third in the UK to be EASA-certificated, moving away from the previous UK CAA oversight. Both these achievements involved stringent SMS, training and oversight protocols that smaller regional or general aviation airports can find challenging to meet and maintain.

London Oxford Airport was also among the first to meet the high quality OMEGA standards when handling fuel.

Elsewhere, London Oxford continues to grow its market share in business aviation within the London region. With better hours than most peers, it can operate from 06:00 to midnight seven days a week. There are several MRO organisations on-site to support most business aircraft types, and towards the end of the year new facilities, including a new hangar, will be completed.

Uniquely, it is the only London-region airport to offer specific discount incentives for jets to interline with helicopter shuttles to and from the co-owned and operated London Heliport, which takes just 22 minutes to reach from London Oxford.

The Sapphire Pegasus awards were founded by Media Tribune’s Antonia Lukacinova in 2016 to recognise excellence in companies and individuals within the business aviation sector around Europe.