Fleet Care Program at Toulon-Hyères (LFTH)

Why does a fleet program matter at a coastal resort airport?

Toulon-Hyères sits 13 feet above sea level, three kilometres from Hyères town centre and less than five kilometres from the Mediterranean shoreline. Salt aerosol carried inland by sea breezes deposits a hygroscopic film on painted surfaces, leading edges and belly panels within hours of a wash. Left unattended, that film attracts dust, accelerates oxidation of aluminium brightwork and degrades the hydrophobic coatings applied during polish.

A fleet program counters this by scheduling rinseless washes or dry-wash treatments at intervals short enough to prevent salt build-up—typically every second or third visit for aircraft flying daily legs. Monthly interior deep-cleans address the fine sand and pollen that passengers track into the cabin during the summer season, while seasonal exterior polish restores gloss before the aircraft repositions to northern Europe or crosses the Atlantic. The result is an airframe that holds its value and presents well to charter clients without requiring the chief pilot to chase appointment slots or reconcile invoices from three different vendors.

What changes at Toulon-Hyères that affects the service?

The airport operates two runways—05/23 at 2,120 metres and 13/31 at 1,902 metres—and shares the site with the French Navy's Base d'aéronautique navale Hyères-Le Palyvestre. Airside access follows military-airfield rules, which means our crew holds the necessary clearances and coordinates each visit with both the handling agent and the naval authority. Civil operations are managed by VINCI Airports, whose Executive Handling team operates the dedicated Terminal Affaires at the airport entrance; turning left brings you to the business-aviation apron, where customs and border control are on site.

The low elevation and coastal position mean no altitude or temperature penalties for MTOW, but they also mean relentless exposure to salt. Handling agents present at the airport coordinate GPU and tow if the aircraft needs to be repositioned to a wash stand away from passenger movements. Because the airport serves a resort catchment, summer traffic peaks between May and September; fleet-program clients receive priority crew allocation during those months, ensuring that a quick turn does not wait behind transient charter arrivals.

How does scheduling work around flight operations?

When you enrol a tail number, we build a service calendar around your published flight schedule and the aircraft's typical rotation pattern. Quick turns—rinseless exterior wash, gear-bay wipe-down, cabin tidy—are planned for layovers of three hours or longer. Monthly interior deep-cleans require six to eight hours and are scheduled during overnight stops or planned downtime. Seasonal exterior work—single-stage or two-stage polish, nacelle decon, leading-edge treatment—happens during longer maintenance windows or at the end of a charter block, often coordinated with your scheduled tech-log inspections.

The calendar is shared with your ops team as a live document. If a trip slips or a charter extends, you notify one contact and we shift the service window. If the aircraft goes AOG or returns early with a cabin spill, the same contact triggers an unscheduled callout; fleet-program clients receive priority crew allocation and a guaranteed four-hour response during the summer season, eight hours off-season. Every completed service generates a timestamped photo report and a line entry in the service-history file, which your flight department can attach to the aircraft logbook or present during pre-purchase inspections.

What is included in the monthly interior clean?

The monthly deep-clean addresses the areas that weekly cabin tidies cannot reach: seat-track channels, sidewall seams, galley drawer runners, lavatory extraction grilles and the joins around cabin-management touchscreens. We vacuum and treat all OEM-approved soft surfaces—leather, Ultraleather, wool carpet, Alcantara headliners—with pH-neutral cleaners that do not leave surfactant residue. Hard surfaces are wiped with microfibre and an anti-static solution; windows are polished inside and out, and the cheat line is inspected for scuff transfer from baggage or catering carts.

Galley and lavatory deep-cleans include degreasing the oven cavity, descaling the coffee maker, treating the toilet bowl with enzyme cleaner and wiping down all stowage compartments. We check the condition of cabin fabrics and flag any stains or wear that may require specialist treatment during the next quarterly review. The cockpit receives a no-touch avionics wipe, instrument-panel dust removal and a leather-conditioner application to the seats. Each monthly clean takes six to eight hours and is documented with before-and-after photos filed in your service history.

How does the seasonal exterior work fit the Riviera calendar?

Most fleets based at Toulon-Hyères follow a predictable seasonal pattern: high utilisation between May and September, when the Riviera hosts corporate events, summer charters and festival traffic, then reduced frequency through the winter as aircraft reposition to ski regions or return to home base. We schedule the first exterior polish in late April or early May, restoring gloss and applying fresh hydrophobic sealant before the summer season. A second polish happens in late September or early October, removing the accumulated oxidation, insect strikes and exhaust residue from three months of daily flying.

If the aircraft winters at Toulon-Hyères, we add a third service in January or February—usually a single-stage polish with brightwork treatment—to counter the dulling effect of winter moisture and the salt spray carried by mistral winds. Brightwork on nacelle lips, windscreen surrounds and winglet leading edges is treated separately with metal polish and corrosion inhibitor. Each seasonal service is timed to avoid peak charter slots and coordinated with your maintenance schedule, so the aircraft emerges from a C-check or avionics upgrade with a finish that matches the investment.

What does fixed monthly billing actually mean?

At enrolment, we calculate a fixed monthly fee per tail number based on the aircraft type, the agreed service calendar and the expected number of quick turns, monthly interiors and seasonal polishes over twelve months. That fee is invoiced on the first of each month and covers all scheduled work, consumables, photo reports and service-history documentation. AOG callouts and unscheduled requests—cabin spills, bird-strike clean-up, de-icing if the aircraft has been cold-soaked on the ramp—are billed separately at the standard hourly rate, but they receive priority crew allocation as part of the program.

The fixed fee eliminates the need to issue purchase orders for every wash or reconcile line items across multiple invoices. Your finance team sees one predictable charge per tail per month; your ops team deals with one contact for scheduling, service queries and quarterly reviews. At the end of the twelve-month term, we present a full service history with photos, a summary of unscheduled work and a recommendation for any deferred treatments—paint touch-up, cabin refurbishment, corrosion remediation—that should be addressed before renewal.