Ceramic Coating at Lampedusa (LICD)

What changes at Lampedusa for a ceramic-coating project?

Lampedusa sits at seventy feet elevation with a single 1795-metre runway, half a kilometre from the town centre. The airport is fully coordinated—Level 3 under Assoclearance—and slots are mandatory year-round, even in the quiet months. AST Aeroservizi operates the airport, the apron and all ground handling, so there is no separate FBO; every request for parking, GPU or hangar access goes to the operator's office on Contrada Cala Francese.

Traffic is intensely seasonal. July and August bring tourism-focused scheduled and charter flights, short turnarounds and apron congestion; winter is quiet. A ceramic-coating project needs three to six consecutive days in a hangar, so we plan it for the shoulder or low season when stand availability is higher and the operator can accommodate a long-term block. The slot requirement means your inbound positioning leg and the outbound ferry both carry an allocated time; we fold those into the project timeline and confirm them with AST before you dispatch.

Because the operator handles everything airside, our crew coordinates directly with AST for hangar access, power, water and any extension to the parking block. There is no handler to brief separately; the same team that marshals you in will unlock the hangar and manage the apron escort.

Why does ceramic coating take three to six days?

Ceramic is not a spray-and-go product. The aircraft arrives, we tow it into the hangar, then begin a full decontamination: clay bar, iron remover, tar and adhesive strips, every contaminant that washing alone will not shift. Once the paint is clean we inspect it under high-intensity light, correct any oxidation, swirl marks or light scratches with a multi-stage polish, then wipe down with isopropyl to remove every trace of oil.

The first ceramic layer goes on in small sections—bonnet, winglet, nacelle—because the product flashes in minutes and must be buffed before it hardens. We apply a second layer twelve to twenty-four hours later, once the first has cured enough to accept it. Brightwork—leading edges, exhaust surrounds, any polished aluminium—receives its own ceramic formula; windows get a separate hydrophobic treatment. The final step is a controlled cure: the aircraft stays in the hangar at stable temperature for twenty-four to forty-eight hours so the coating cross-links properly.

We hand you a maintenance plan that specifies PH-neutral wash products and intervals, and a warranty document that covers the coating for two to three years depending on your operating environment. The whole process is methodical, and it cannot be rushed without compromising durability.

How do we schedule ceramic coating around your flight operations?

Most ceramic projects at Lampedusa happen during a scheduled maintenance window—the aircraft is already out of service for an inspection or a cabin refit—or at the end of a charter season when the jet will sit for a few weeks. We ask for your preferred inbound date, check slot availability with AST and hangar access with the operator, then propose a five- or six-day block that includes positioning in, the work itself and ferry out.

If you operate a regular rotation into Lampedusa, we can slot the project between legs during the quieter months, but the aircraft will be off-line for the duration; there is no half-day shortcut. Once the timeline is agreed we file for your inbound slot, arrange GPU and tow, and confirm the hangar lock with AST. You receive a day-by-day schedule—decon on day one, correction on day two, first ceramic layer on day three, second layer on day four, cure and inspection on day five—so your dispatcher knows exactly when the aircraft will be released.

We send a photo report after each stage: post-decon, post-correction, first layer applied, second layer applied, final cure. The report goes into your tech log as a record of the work and feeds the warranty document.

Is ceramic coating a one-off project or recurring work?

Ceramic is a two-to-three-year product, so it sits between annual detailing and a full repaint. If you bring the aircraft to us straight after a repaint, the coating locks in that fresh finish and stretches the interval before the next paint correction. If the jet has been flying for a year or two, we correct the paint first—remove oxidation, restore gloss—then apply the ceramic so you start the protection cycle with the best possible surface.

After the initial application, the aircraft comes back every two or three years for a re-coat. We strip any remaining ceramic with a light polish, inspect the paint, correct any new defects, then apply two fresh layers. Between re-coats you follow the maintenance plan: PH-neutral wash every four to six weeks, no automatic brush washes, no wax or sealant over the ceramic. The coating itself is hydrophobic, so water sheets off and the belly stays cleaner; each wash takes fifteen or twenty minutes less than it would on bare paint.

Some operators add ceramic as a standing item in their fleet-management calendar—aircraft A gets a re-coat in March, aircraft B in October—so the work rotates through the fleet without ever grounding more than one jet at a time. That approach works well at a seasonal airport like Lampedusa, because we can schedule every project for the shoulder months when slots and hangar space are easier to secure.

What does AST Aeroservizi expect from a third-party detailing crew?

AST runs the airport, the apron and all ground services, so they see third-party contractors regularly—cabin shops, avionics teams, paint-correction crews. Their expectation is straightforward: you arrive with an airside pass or an escort arranged in advance, you bring your own equipment and consumables, you leave the hangar and the stand in the condition you found them, and you coordinate every tow, every GPU connection and every wastewater disposal through their operations desk.

We hold current airside passes for Italian airports and we carry our own pressure washers, polishers, ceramic product, microfibre, lighting and tow bar. If we need water we ask AST where to draw it; if we generate wastewater we ask where to dump it. At the end of the project we walk the hangar with an AST supervisor, confirm there is no damage and no mess, then release the stand. The operator writes a short note in their log—"Third-party detailing complete, stand released"—and we countersign it.

Because Lampedusa is coordinated, AST also expects us to respect your outbound slot. If the coating cure runs over and we need an extra six hours, we tell you immediately so you can request a slot revision; we do not wait until the morning of departure and hope for the best.

What documentation do you receive after a ceramic-coating project?

You receive three documents. First, a stage-by-stage photo report: the aircraft as it arrived, post-decon with contaminants removed, post-correction with paint defects gone, first ceramic layer applied, second layer applied, final cure complete. Each photograph is dated and captioned, and the whole report runs to thirty or forty images depending on the size of the jet. It goes into your tech log as a record of the work and as evidence for the warranty.

Second, a maintenance plan: which wash products are safe to use over ceramic (PH-neutral only, no alkaline degreasers), how often to wash (every four to six weeks), what to avoid (automatic brush washes, wax, sealant, compound), and how to inspect the coating (water should bead and sheet; if it stops beading, the coating is wearing thin). The plan also lists our contact details so your line crew can ask questions six months down the road.

Third, a warranty document that covers the ceramic coating for two or three years depending on your operating environment—two years if you fly into high-UV or high-salt regions frequently, three years if you operate mainly in temperate zones. The warranty is conditional on following the maintenance plan; if you run the jet through a brush wash and strip half the coating, the warranty is void. All three documents are emailed as PDFs within twenty-four hours of the aircraft leaving Lampedusa, and we keep copies in our own records for audit.