Fleet Care Program at Geneva (LSGG)

Why does a fleet program make sense at Geneva?

Business aviation at LSGG runs on tight margins: take-offs after 22:00 are restricted and penalised, slots are mandatory for all movements, and FBOs staff their aprons from 06:00 to 22:00 with call-out beyond those hours. Charter operators working the Alps and Mediterranean routes turn aircraft quickly, and a last-minute request for a full exterior wash can collide with handler schedules, GPU availability, or the slot you already hold.

A fleet program removes that friction. We hold standing crew allocations for your tail numbers, the handler knows our airside-pass holders by name, and your chief pilot or dispatch desk has a single mobile number for schedule changes. When an aircraft diverts inbound with hydraulic streaks or a cabin spill, the AOG request goes straight to a allocated team rather than into a general queue. For fleets of two or more aircraft operating from the same base, the twelve-month budget is easier to forecast than a string of ad-hoc invoices.

What changes at Geneva between winter and summer?

Geneva sits at 1411 feet elevation, four kilometres from the city centre, with a single 3900-metre runway serving both scheduled and business traffic. The airport permits take-offs from 06:00 to midnight local, but departures after 22:00 are tightly restricted—since January 2025 they carry financial penalties—so evening turnarounds compress into the two hours before that threshold. Handling agents present at the airport operate the business aviation terminal (Terminal C3 on the south-west apron) during daylight and early-evening hours; work outside the 06:00–22:00 window requires advance arrangement.

Winter brings de-icing: when the aircraft is cold-soaked overnight, a morning departure may need Type I fluid on the stand, and any exterior detailing must happen after de-icing or wait until the next cycle. Propylene-glycol residue on the belly and gear bays becomes a monthly interior-cleaning trigger. Spring pollen from the Jura and summer dust from the plains settle on dark paint faster than at sea-level airports, so fleets working June through September often add a mid-month dry wash to the calendar. The program's service calendar flexes with these seasonal loads.

How does airside access work for a third-party crew?

All contractor access at LSGG goes through the FBO: customs, immigration and security are on site at the business aviation terminal, and 24-hour surveillance covers the south apron. Each of our technicians holds a valid airside pass, the handler receives our crew list and vehicle registrations before the first visit, and the FBO escort meets us at the gate when the aircraft arrives on stand.

Because Geneva is slot-coordinated and every movement requires PPR through the handling agent, we confirm the service window with your dispatcher and the FBO simultaneously. If the inbound slot moves, the handler alerts both your crew and our team. For fleets in the program, the FBO keeps our contact details and vehicle plates on file, so repeat visits clear security faster than one-off callouts. When an AOG lands unannounced, the handler already knows which Terso crew to call.

What does the twelve-month calendar include?

The program starts with a walk-around of each tail number: we photograph the paint, measure gloss on the fuselage and nacelles, inspect the cabin for material wear, and agree a baseline condition report with your maintenance or operations team. From that baseline we build a calendar that layers quick exterior turns, monthly interior deep-cleans, and seasonal correction work—decontamination in spring, single-stage polish before summer, brightwork touch-up in autumn.

Quick turns happen between legs: a rinseless wash of the fuselage, wings and tail, cleaning of the windscreen and side windows, and a cabin tidy—galley wipe-down, vacuum, lavatory service, leather conditioning on the seats. Monthly interiors add carpet extraction, sidewall cleaning, and no-touch avionics dusting. Seasonal exteriors include bug and exhaust decon, leading-edge polish, and a hydrophobic sealant refresh. Each visit is logged with before-and-after photos, and every quarter we sit down with your team to review the service history and adjust the calendar if flight patterns have changed.

Who holds the budget and the contact point?

The contract runs for twelve months, with a fixed monthly fee per tail number. That fee covers the agreed calendar—turns, interiors, seasonals—and priority access for AOG requests; additional work outside the calendar, such as a post-charter deep-clean or an unscheduled polish, is billed separately at the standard rate. You receive one invoice each month, and the finance team sees a predictable line item instead of variable detailing charges.

Operationally, one person on your side—chief pilot, flight-department manager, or charter ops supervisor—becomes the program contact. Schedule changes, AOG callouts, and quarterly reviews all flow through that single point. On our side, a dedicated account coordinator tracks each tail number, maintains the service history, and ensures that the same core crew works your aircraft throughout the year. When your Gulfstream lands at 21:30 with a cabin event and a 06:00 departure slot the next morning, the call goes to a technician who already knows that aircraft's cheat-line tape edges and the OEM finish on the cabin sidewalls.

What happens when an aircraft leaves the program base?

Fleet programs are built around a home base, but business aviation rarely stays in one place. If your aircraft repositions to Cannes, Nice, or Milan for a charter series, the program's AOG cover travels with it: we coordinate with our crew or a trusted contractor at the outstation, the work is billed against the same monthly budget, and the service record is updated when the aircraft returns to Geneva. For longer deployments—a summer in Ibiza, a winter season in Gstaad—we pause the home-base calendar and restart it when the aircraft comes back onto the south apron.

The twelve-month term is renewable. Most fleet operators review the program each autumn, adjust the calendar for the next year's flight schedule, and roll the contract forward. If a tail number leaves the fleet or moves to a different base, we close out its service history and remove it from the monthly invoice. The goal is a stable, predictable relationship that removes appearance maintenance from your dispatcher's task list and keeps your aircraft consistently clean without a standing phone call every time you need a wash.