Full Interior Detail at Bolzano Dolomiti (LIPB)

What does a full interior detail include at Bolzano Dolomiti?

The service begins with a visual inspection and a walk-through with the captain or lead cabin crew to note any specific concerns—stains on the carpet, scuff marks on veneer, galley odours. Every leather surface in the cabin is cleaned with pH-neutral aviation leather cleaner, then conditioned to prevent cracking in the dry alpine air. Carpets and fabric upholstery receive hot-water extraction; stubborn stains are pre-treated, and high-traffic areas around the entry and galley get extra passes.

Veneer, metal and plastic trim are polished with non-abrasive compounds. The galley is stripped: drawers emptied, surfaces degreased, drains flushed, seals wiped. The lavatory receives the same attention—mirror, basin, toilet, all seals and the waste-service panel. In the flight deck we use no-touch procedures around avionics, cleaning only yokes, throttles, seats, side consoles and windows with approved wipes and sprays. If requested, we finish with a cabin-wide disinfectant fog or wipe-down, logged in the service sheet.

Duration ranges from four hours for a light super-midsize to ten hours for an ACJ or BBJ with complex cabin zones. The aircraft can remain on stand under GPU, or we work inside the hangar if ABD has space and the booking allows it.

What changes at Bolzano Dolomiti that affects scheduling?

Bolzano sits at 789 feet in an alpine valley with a single runway, 01/19, measuring 1,432 metres; the strip was extended seventy metres south in late 2021, but it remains a short field by business-jet standards. That length constraint and the surrounding terrain mean many operators plan fuel stops or light loads, which in turn creates natural windows for interior work during a tech stop or overnight.

The airport is open from 06:30 to 23:00 local (CET), and the General Aviation Office—located in the main terminal at Via Aeroporto Francesco Baracca 1—operates from 06:00 to 22:00. ABD Airport, the operator, provides in-house handling and also manages the hangar; daily or long-term hangarage requests go through the same office. Jet A-1 is available seven days a week between 06:00 and 23:00. Customs are on site, so non-Schengen arrivals clear without diversion.

Winter brings ski-season traffic—December through March—and slots on the apron tighten. Summer is quieter, and hangar space is easier to secure on short notice. If you want the aircraft indoors for the detail, coordinate hangarage at the same time you file PPR; ABD's service regulation requires advance notice for anything beyond a few hours on stand.

How do you coordinate a detail with the handler at BZO?

We are not based on the field, so every job begins with notification to the General Aviation Office, either by email to SITA BZOOWXH or by telephone. The handler needs our company name, the names and passport or ID-card numbers of the technicians who will work airside, and the aircraft registration and parking-stand assignment. ABD issues temporary airside passes; one of their staff escorts us to the stand for the first visit, and if the detail spans multiple days or we become a regular presence, the escort requirement may be waived after the initial clearance.

The captain or flight-department manager usually sends us the tech log and any cabin-specific instructions—materials to avoid, areas the owner has flagged, whether the flight deck may be entered. We bring our own GPU adapter set, but if ship's power or an ABD ground-power unit is already connected we confirm polarity and voltage before plugging our vacuum extractors and polishers. Water for the extraction machine comes from our own tank; Bolzano has water-discharge rules common to alpine airports, so waste goes into our recovery tank and is disposed of at our facility, not down a ramp drain.

Does recurring work at Bolzano make sense, or is this always a one-off call?

Both models exist. A charter operator with a Praetor or Challenger on a two-week Alpine shuttle during ski season will often schedule a mid-run interior detail at Bolzano—aircraft flies morning and evening legs, we work the six-hour midday block, and the cabin is reset for the next set of passengers. That becomes a standing weekly or fortnightly slot, and the handler knows to expect us.

One-off calls are just as common: an owner-flown Global or Falcon inbound from the Middle East for a Dolomites holiday, and the captain wants the cabin detailed before the principal boards for the return leg. We've also seen aircraft divert to Bolzano with a maintenance issue—AOG for a day or two—and the flight department uses the downtime to tick off an interior detail that was already overdue. Because the airport has hangar space and customs, it works as both a planned base and an unplanned recovery field.

If you operate regularly through BZO, let us know; we'll lodge our company details and technician credentials with ABD in advance, which cuts the airside-pass lead time from days to hours.

What documentation and photos do you provide after the detail?

Every full interior detail closes with a written service report: aircraft registration, date, location, start and finish times (Zulu and local), a checklist of tasks completed, products used (brand and batch number for the leather conditioner, the extraction detergent, any disinfectant), and notes on any pre-existing damage or stains that could not be fully removed. If we find a torn seat seam or a loose veneer edge, it goes into the notes with a photograph.

Photographs are standard. We shoot before-and-after pairs of the main cabin zones—forward seating, mid-cabin, aft galley and lavatory—and close-ups of any area that received special attention or that the captain flagged in the brief. Images are date- and time-stamped, transferred to a USB stick or emailed as a password-protected archive, and kept in our records for two years. Some flight departments append the report to the tech log; others file it separately for audit or insurance purposes.

If the work was arranged through a management company or a fleet program, we send a duplicate set of documents to the program office. Turn-around is same-day: report and photos are ready before the aircraft departs, or within two hours if we finish late in the evening.

What should a captain or handler expect on the day of the detail?

We arrive at the General Aviation Office at the agreed time—usually thirty minutes before the aircraft is due or, if it is already on stand, as soon as our airside escort is available. The handler walks us to the aircraft; we meet the captain or the handling-agent representative on the ramp, confirm the scope of work and any no-go zones (owner's personal items left in a cabin credenza, a specific seat with a known tear that is scheduled for repair elsewhere), and agree on communication: mobile numbers exchanged, or a call to the handler's desk if the captain has left the field.

Once the cabin door is open we lay drop-sheets on the entry steps and the galley sole if the floor is veneer or pale carpet. The aircraft remains on external power or GPU throughout; we do not cycle the battery. If the detail runs longer than expected—an extraction that needs a second pass, or a galley drain that was more clogged than it looked—we notify the handler and the captain immediately, because any delay can cascade into the next slot or the departure clearance.

At the end we walk the captain or the handler through the cabin, collect a signature on the service sheet, hand over the report and the USB stick, and clear the stand. The aircraft is ready for the next leg or for overnight security.