Fleet Care Program at Sion (LSGS)

Why does a fleet program make sense at an alpine airport?

Sion sits at 1582 feet in the Rhone Valley, a gateway to Valais ski resorts—Verbier, Zermatt, Crans-Montana—and business aviation peaks hard in the winter months. Daylight-only operations compress the working day: the aerodrome closes at the end of daylight, latest 18:00 Zulu in summer and 19:00 in winter, and FBO hours shorten to 08:00 until nightfall from October through March. If you are running a charter programme or corporate shuttle into Sion, every turnaround counts, and ad-hoc detailing bookings eat into narrow daylight windows.

A twelve-month program removes the friction. We build a service calendar in advance—quick exterior turns timed between legs, cabin work during longer layovers, full decon and polish scheduled for low-utilisation weeks. You get fixed monthly billing per tail number, priority crew allocation and the certainty that someone will be on the ramp when your aircraft lands, even if the slot moves at short notice. For fleets working the alpine circuit, that predictability is worth more than the cost of the contract.

What changes at Sion that affects detailing work?

Sion operates two runways: a 2000-metre paved strip (07/25) and a 660-metre grass parallel used mainly for gliders and light piston aircraft. Business jets use the paved runway and park on the ramp at either Signature Flight Support (Chemin Lambien 12, with its own hangar and on-site customs) or Alpinejet Handling (Route des Ronquoz 146, offering VIP reception and hangar storage). Both handling agents are staffed from 07:00 to 20:00 local in summer; in winter, hours contract to 08:00 until nightfall. Hangar space is available for aircraft up to 77,000 kilograms—useful when you need to shelter a cold-soaked airframe for cabin work or a single-stage polish out of the wind.

The alpine-valley location brings weather that punishes exterior finishes. Winter road salt, de-icing fluid residue and mineral dust from the valley floor accumulate quickly on the belly and nacelles. Instrument approaches rely on an IGS and RNP procedures, and the airport requires a dedicated pilot qualification for IFR work, so most operators know Sion's quirks before they file. For detailing, the short winter day and cold temperatures mean we schedule cabin interiors and brightwork correction inside a hangar whenever the aircraft has a multi-hour layover, and we time exterior rinses for the warmest part of the afternoon when water restrictions and apron temperature allow.

Customs and immigration are on site during aerodrome administration hours; airside ramp access is controlled with 24-hour surveillance and secure entry via the FBO. If you are bringing a third-party detailing crew—us—the handler will ask for advance notice, a list of personnel and proof of liability insurance. We hold current airside passes and work within the handler's movement-area rules; your flight-department manager does not need to escort us every time.

What does the twelve-month calendar actually include?

The program is not a block of pre-paid hours; it is a planned maintenance rhythm. We map your typical flight schedule—peak ski-season shuttles, summer positioning legs, maintenance downtime—and overlay a service calendar: quick dry-wash or rinseless turns after every second or third sector, a full cabin clean and leather conditioning once a month, exterior decon and single-stage polish twice a year (spring and autumn), and brightwork correction as needed. If your fleet includes long-range aircraft that see transatlantic crossings, we add leading-edge inspections and bug-strike removal to the spring and summer slots.

Every visit generates a service record: photographs of the exterior before and after, notes on any paint chips or corrosion we spot on the belly or gear bays, and a summary of cabin materials treated. Those records go into a shared folder your operations team can access, and every quarter we sit down—by video or in person—to review the fleet's appearance, flag any trends (say, repeated belly staining from a particular de-icing fluid) and adjust the calendar for the next three months. The goal is no surprises and no scrambling when an owner inspection is two days out.

How does priority AOG cover work under the fleet program?

Aircraft-on-ground requests come in two flavours: the scheduled turn that moves up by six hours because weather closed an alternate, and the genuine emergency—a hydraulic leak that grounds the jet until a part arrives, or a cabin spill that needs immediate attention before the next charter leg. Fleet program clients get 24/7 AOG cover, which means a phone number that reaches a duty manager any hour, and a crew we hold on standby during your peak season.

At Sion, daylight-only operations add a wrinkle: if your aircraft goes AOG after the aerodrome closes, we cannot access the ramp until administration hours resume the next morning. But if the call comes in while the field is open, we mobilise immediately—typically within 90 minutes if the aircraft is on the Signature or Alpinejet ramp and the handler has been notified. For winter AOG work, we coordinate with the handler to move the aircraft into a hangar if the job (cabin decon, galley deep-clean, or a post-maintenance exterior wash) will take more than two hours and the temperature is below freezing. Priority does not mean magic, but it does mean we have allocated crew and equipment before you call, and the handler knows we are coming.

What does the handler expect when we show up?

Signature and Alpinejet both run professional operations; they expect advance notice, a crew manifest and proof that we carry liability insurance that names them as additional insured. For fleet program work, we file a blanket notification at the start of the contract: the handler receives a list of our personnel, copies of airside passes, insurance certificates and emergency contact numbers, and we update that file whenever crew or coverage changes. On the day, we check in at the FBO desk, confirm the stand and GPU status, and coordinate any movement-area access with the handler's ramp supervisor.

If the aircraft needs to be towed into a hangar—common in winter for cabin work or when we are doing a full exterior polish—we arrange that through the handler, not directly with the tug driver. The handler invoices the tow and hangar time separately; we do not mark up third-party costs. After the job, we leave the aircraft clean, pitot covers and static-port plugs in place if it is staying overnight, and we notify the handler and your flight crew that the work is complete and the tech log is updated. The goal is to be invisible: the handler sees a professional third-party crew that follows the same protocols as their own staff, and your chief pilot sees an aircraft that is always ready.

Who should consider a fleet program at Sion?

The program makes most sense for operators with predictable, recurring activity: a charter company running a winter shuttle between Sion and London or Geneva, a corporate flight department with a based super-midsize that flies twice a week, or an FBO managing several owner aircraft that spend the ski season in the Valais. If your aircraft visits Sion once or twice a year, a one-off detailing booking is more sensible. But if you are logging ten or more visits per season, the program delivers better economics and smoother operations.

We also see take-up from fleet managers who want to standardise appearance across multiple tail numbers. A twelve-month calendar ensures every aircraft in the fleet gets the same service rhythm—no forgotten interiors, no deferred brightwork—and the quarterly reviews give the operations team a forum to raise concerns or adjust the plan. The fixed monthly budget (per tail number) makes it easier to forecast costs and justify the spend to ownership or finance, and the service-history documentation helps at resale or lease return. It is maintenance planning applied to appearance, and it works.