Fleet Care Program at Avignon Provence (LFMV)

Why does a fleet program make sense at a regional airport like Avignon?

Avignon Provence positions itself as totally adapted to business aviation—dedicated GAT, executive lounge, hangars, no slot coordination—but it remains a regional field where third-party services come and go. A fleet program guarantees you the same detailing crew every time, with airside access already in place and materials pre-positioned. You avoid the friction of ad-hoc bookings, last-minute handler liaison and variable pricing.

For charter operators running short hops into Provence or corporates basing a mid-size jet here, the program turns appearance into a fixed line item. One invoice covers every scheduled wash, interior refresh and brightwork session for the year. If an AOG cabin decon or bird-strike belly clean arises between scheduled visits, you call the same mobile and the crew is on-site within the priority window written into your contract. No new quotes, no new purchase orders.

The twelve-month calendar also spreads heavy tasks—single-stage polish, gear-bay degreasing, nacelle brightwork—across the seasons when they make most sense, rather than cramming everything into a spring blitz that pulls the aircraft off the line for two days.

What changes at Avignon Provence that affects how we schedule detailing?

The airport sits at 124 feet elevation with a single paved runway, 17/35, measuring 1,880 metres; two grass strips serve ultralights only. The dedicated business-aviation terminal opened in March 2009—a 120-square-metre reception with an executive lounge—and handling agents present at the airport co-ordinate ground services and apron access. Because Avignon is not slot-coordinated and customs is available on request, you enjoy flexible arrival times, which makes it easier to build a detailing window into the turnaround without waiting for a release slot.

Operationally, the compact apron and single handling point mean our crew can reach your stand quickly once the GPU is connected and the pitot covers are on. We don't lose time shuttling between distant ramps or waiting for an escort every visit. The regional character also means fewer competing movements during mid-morning and early-afternoon blocks, so a rinseless exterior or a two-hour cabin clean rarely delays pushback.

Seasonally, southern France swings between hot, dusty summers—when leading edges and belly panels collect fine particulate—and cooler, wetter winters that leave water spots on the cheat line if the aircraft sits outside overnight. The fleet calendar spaces exterior washes and hydrophobic top-ups to match those cycles, keeping the paint clean without over-washing.

How does the service calendar fit around our actual flying?

During the program kick-off, we pull three months of your flight schedule—departure and arrival times, average turnaround length, overnight-base pattern—and draft a calendar that assigns quick exteriors after every second or third rotation, monthly cabin cleans during longer ground stops, and quarterly detail sessions when the aircraft is already down for scheduled maintenance. You review the draft, move any date that conflicts with a charter series or a positioning flight, and approve.

The calendar lives in a shared document; your operations team and our crew lead both see it. If a flight cancels or a leg runs late, ops sends one message and we shift that day's wash to the next available slot, usually within forty-eight hours. Because we already hold the airside pass and the handler knows the program, rescheduling takes minutes, not phone tag across three companies.

For AOG requests—a hydraulic-fluid spill in the cabin, a bird strike that leaves organic matter on the nacelle, a passenger illness requiring a deep decon—the program guarantees a two-hour or four-hour response, depending on the tier you choose. The crew brings the equipment list written into your contract, performs the work, photographs the result and logs it in your service history before you file the tech log entry.

What does the fixed monthly budget actually cover?

Each tail number in the program pays a fixed monthly fee that covers a defined basket of services: typically four to six quick exteriors (dry wash or rinseless, depending on water rules and season), one full cabin interior, one gear-bay inspection and wipe-down, and one brightwork polish per quarter. If your aircraft is a super-midsize with simple cabin materials and you fly fewer legs, the basket might include two exteriors and a bi-monthly interior; if it's an ultra-long-range jet with complex galley fit-out and high utilisation, we adjust the frequency upward and the monthly figure reflects that.

The budget also includes consumables—microfibre cloths, pH-neutral detergents, hydrophobic sealant, brightwork compound—and the crew's time on the ramp, including any wait for GPU or handler clearance. What it does not cover are one-off deep projects that fall outside the calendar: a full single-stage correction after a season of Saharan dust, a complete cabin material treatment with OEM-approved conditioners, or an unscheduled decon that requires biocide and UV verification. Those appear as separate line items, but because we already know the aircraft and hold the access, the quote is faster and the price lower than a cold-call vendor would charge.

At the end of each quarter, you receive a reconciliation sheet showing services delivered against the calendar, any additions, and a comparison to what ad-hoc pricing would have cost. Most fleet customers see a fifteen-to-twenty-per-cent saving, plus the operational benefit of never hunting for a detailer the night before a charter leg.

How do documentation and photo reports work across a twelve-month program?

After every visit—whether a ten-minute quick wash or a four-hour cabin detail—the crew uploads a dated photo set to your shared folder: wide shots of the exterior from nose, tail and beam; close-ups of any area that needed extra attention (a bug-strike leading edge, a scuffed threshold plate, a galley counter with a stubborn stain); and a final walkaround showing the aircraft ready for flight. The photos carry EXIF timestamps and are organised by tail number and date, so your chief pilot or charter ops manager can pull a visual service history in seconds.

If the work was triggered by an AOG event—fluid spill, bird strike, passenger illness—the report includes a short narrative: what we found, which materials we used, how long the aircraft was out of service, and any recommendation for follow-up (for example, a suggestion to re-treat a cabin section with OEM conditioner after a chemical decon). That narrative goes to your operations team the same day, and a PDF copy sits in the service-history file.

Quarterly, we sit down—in person at Avignon or by video—and review the past three months: which tasks went smoothly, which ran into delays (weather, handler congestion, late arrival), and whether the calendar needs adjustment for the next quarter. If you've added a second tail to the program or changed your utilisation pattern, we re-balance the basket and the budget. The goal is that by month six, the program runs almost invisibly: the aircraft stays clean, the invoices match the forecast, and your ops team spends zero time managing detailing logistics.

What happens when we want to add or remove an aircraft mid-program?

Fleet composition changes—a new acquisition, a sale, a long-term charter-out that moves a tail to another base. The twelve-month contract allows you to add or drop aircraft at the end of any calendar quarter, with thirty days' written notice. If you add a tail, we schedule a baseline inspection within two weeks, photograph the current condition, agree the service basket and the monthly fee, and fold it into the existing calendar. If you remove a tail, the monthly charge stops at the end of that quarter; any pre-paid balance is credited against the remaining aircraft or refunded, your choice.

Mid-quarter changes are possible but trigger a pro-rata adjustment: if you bring in a second super-midsize jet in week six of a thirteen-week quarter, you pay seven-thirteenths of that tail's quarterly fee, and the crew adds it to the rota immediately. The shared calendar updates, the handler receives the new registration, and the first service—usually a full exterior and interior to establish the baseline—happens within seventy-two hours.

This flexibility matters for charter operators whose fleet mix shifts with seasonal demand, and for corporate flight departments that occasionally dry-lease a tail to a sister company in another country. You're not locked into paying for an aircraft that no longer flies through Avignon, and you're not scrambling to find ad-hoc detailing when a new jet arrives on Monday morning.