London-Teterboro?

"Farnborough Airport is going to be the Teterboro of the London Airports," said TAG Aviation Group's CEO Roger McMullin. TAG's Farnborough FBO Director Len Rayment said of the $100 million site, "Farnborough will be the most modern, dedicated corporate aviation terminal in Europe."

The TAG facility is also gaining more BBJ and ACJ movements; by midyear they had already clocked 120 BBJ/ACJ movements against 26 for the same period the previous year.

Rayment reckons that Farnborough's aircraft movements will reach 15,000 to 16,000 this year and could reach their current licensed limit of 28,000 by 2007. Movements are forecast to grow by 9 to 10 percent annually, according to McMullin.

TAG's transformation of the ex-Ministry of Defence airfield (to the southwest of London) was plain to see for visitors to the Farnborough Air Show in July. Building work only started just over a year ago, so the transformation was spectacular. Most of the development is on the north side of the "airport" and the three new "wave" hangars can hold six BBJ2s. The hangar floor area works out to 120,000 square feet, and another 18 acres of ramp space has been created.

A brand-new 100-foot stainless-steel-clad control tower is nearing completion and is due to be operational and certificated by December of this year. "The tower is now the pacing item for U.K. Civil Aviation Authority certification for the airport," said McMullin.

Runway 06/24 has been reprofiled and resurfaced; all airport ground lighting and signage has been replaced and ILS installed on both ends of the runway. There is 6,600 feet available for takeoff and 5,900 feet for the landing run. The landing thresholds have been moved toward the center of the airfield to make the airport a better neighbor. Pilots now have to fly a 3.5-degree approach to enhance noise reduction. The airport is Chapter III noise compliant.

A lot of the expenditure at the airport is not visible, however. TAG has had to replace virtually all of the infrastructure on this 90-year-plus historic airfield. Water, power and drainage have had to be installed to the latest environmental standards, and a new fuel farm costing in excess of $1 million has been built. New road access to the north side has also been bulldozed through, giving customers much quicker access to the M3 Motorway.

TAG's new, boomerang-shape passenger terminal, which will be sited to the right of the new hangar, is slated for completion by 2004. Another two refurbished hangars on the west side of the airfield are earmarked for aircraft maintenance work.

"We've had a tremendous amount of positive response from those attending this year's Farnborough Air Show," said Rayment. "Over the nine-day period of the show, we handled 495 corporate aircraft movements -- the same period last year (without the biannual show) generated 413 movements." Judging from landing fees, the average aircraft size has moved up a notch from Falcon and Hawker to Falcon 50/Falcon 2000-size business jets.

By Mike Vines