London Oxford Airport, ranked the fifth busiest UK business airport in the UK and amongst the top 20 in Europe, is among a handful of UK business airports that have seen consistent growth post the financial crash of 2007.
According to Eurocontrol figures published last month, London Stansted (with its five FBOs) leads the ‘most recovered’ with a 35% 10-year growth. But London Oxford is a close second with an overall 32% growth.
London Luton Airport retains its crown as the number one airport for business aviation movements, but it and a few other London-centric airports have become “increasingly squeezed for slots, to the benefit of airports like us,” said James Dillon-Godfray, Head of Business Development, speaking at London Oxford Airport’s pre-EBACE 2018 media briefing last week.
‘With night flights constrained at key peer airports we can still operate to midnight seven days a week.’
The uptick in the number of large cabin business aircraft movements it saw last year continues, while the 20% increase in helicopters handled in 2017 shows no sign of reducing. Rotary activity will increase further when the Children’s Air Ambulance moves to Oxford in May.
In fact, far from suffering from the ‘Brexit effect’, the UK has been experiencing a 5% increase UK wide since the beginning of the year, according to WINGX data analysis.