Aircraft Detailing at Girona-Costa Brava (LEGE)

What changes at Girona-Costa Brava for detailing work?

The airport sits at 469 feet elevation with a single 2,400-metre runway (01/19), open around the clock with no published curfew. Six handling agents are present—Centervol with its own 2,000 m² FBO facility and Part-145 hangar, ExecuJet Gerona at the General Aviation Terminal, Sky Valet and Universal Aviation with VIP lounges in the main terminal, plus General Aviation Service and United Aviation Services—so you have a choice of ramp and lounge depending on the trip profile. Customs and immigration run H24, and all handlers offer fuelling, ATS coordination and de-icing during aerodrome hours, which means late-evening arrivals and early-morning departures are routine.

For detailing, that H24 rhythm matters: we can start a waterless wash at 22:00 after the last passenger deplanes, finish the cabin overnight and have the aircraft flight-ready by 07:00. The handler will keep GPU on the stand and escort us airside; if the jet is inside Centervol's hangar we work under roof, which speeds interior climate control in winter. Girona's coastal position—12.5 km south-west of the city centre, close to the Mediterranean—brings salt haze year-round and higher summer UV, so paint oxidises faster than at an inland field and brightwork dulls between visits. A monthly exterior decon and a quarterly polish hold the finish where a twice-yearly schedule would at a dry continental base.

Do you detail transient aircraft or only based fleets at Girona?

Both. A transient ultra-long-range jet inbound from the Middle East with a four-day owner stay is a typical one-off: we'll schedule a complete detail on day one—exterior wash, paint decontamination, single-stage polish, brightwork, full cabin deep-clean and disinfection—so the aircraft sits pristine for the remainder of the trip. The handler marshals us onto the stand once GPU is connected, and we finish in six to nine hours depending on size and paint condition. If the return leg is ten days out and the jet has been exposed to coastal moisture and apron dust, a second quick turn the afternoon before departure keeps the cabin and windows perfect.

For fleets based at LEGE—charter operators running super-midsize or large-cabin aircraft on Mediterranean circuits, or a corporate flight department with two jets splitting time between Girona and northern Europe—we build a twelve-month fleet-care programme: quick turns between revenue legs, monthly full interiors during longer ground times, quarterly exterior decon and polish, annual ceramic re-coat if the paint was corrected in the previous season. The handler bills the detail hours as part of the turnaround, and we store our kit in a locker at the FBO so there's no equipment transit delay. Recurring work also means we learn the specific cabin materials—which veneer needs oil, which leather takes conditioner, where the no-touch avionics bays are—so each visit is faster and the result more consistent.

How does the coastal climate at Girona affect paint and cabin materials?

Salt-laden air drifts in from the Mediterranean, and even though the airport is far enough inland to avoid direct sea spray, the haze settles on every horizontal surface: wings, nacelle tops, the fuselage crown. Left for a week, that invisible layer pulls moisture, which oxidises paint and leaves a chalky film on gloss clearcoat. Brightwork—bare aluminium leading edges, polished spinners, exhaust surrounds—tarnishes faster here than at a mountain field; a mirror finish can cloud in three months instead of six. We decontaminate with a clay mitt and a pH-neutral pre-wash before every polish, lifting the salt and any embedded apron grit so the compound cuts cleanly.

Inside the cabin, higher humidity in spring and autumn means leather needs more frequent conditioning to stay supple, and the air-conditioning packs work harder, which loads the filters and ducts with particulate. We disinfect the entire air path—gaspers, return grilles, the evaporator pan if the tech log permits access—as part of a full interior detail, not just the high-touch surfaces. Summer UV is intense; if the jet sits on the apron for days, the sun-facing sidewalls and any exposed veneer will fade unless the handler parks nose-into-wind or provides a sunshade. We check for UV stress during every cabin visit and recommend an earlier re-treatment of the leather protectant if we see colour shift.

What do handlers at LEGE expect from a third-party detailing crew?

Every handler wants the same three things: an airside pass or a named escort, a work-method statement that confirms no water will enter static ports or pitot tubes, and a finish time that doesn't push into the next scheduled slot. We hold Spanish airside certification and carry third-party liability cover that meets Aena's insurance requirements, so the handler clears us through security and radios when the aircraft is on stand and chocked. If we're working inside Centervol's hangar, the FBO manager unlocks the facility and confirms GPU and lighting; if it's a ramp job at one of the terminal-based handlers, the line supervisor walks us to the aircraft and logs our entry in the movement record.

The work-method statement lists every product—waterless wash emulsion, polish compound, leather cleaner, disinfectant—and notes that we mask pitot heads, cover static ports with tape, and place 'No Touch Avionics' placards on the flight deck before we start. Handlers appreciate that we bring our own lighting, step-stands and vacuum so we're not borrowing ground equipment, and that we leave the stand cleaner than we found it: every polish residue and compound dust is bagged and binned. If the next leg is PPR or the slot is tight, we give the handler a two-hour and a thirty-minute countdown so the flight crew can pre-flight and load bags without waiting on us. That predictability is why handlers call us back for the next transient arrival.

Can you fit a full detail between two charter legs at Girona?

Often, yes—but it depends on the turnaround window and the aircraft's condition. A super-midsize jet arriving at 14:00 and departing at 08:00 the next morning gives us eighteen hours, which is enough for a complete detail: exterior dry wash and single-stage polish (four hours), brightwork on leading edges and nacelles (ninety minutes), full cabin deep-clean including galley, lavatory, carpets and all leather (four hours), and disinfection (forty-five minutes). We start as soon as the pax deplane and the handler releases the aircraft to us, work through the evening and night if the apron is lit, and finish by 06:00 so the crew has two hours for pre-flight and catering load.

If the window is shorter—say a 16:00 arrival and a 22:00 departure—we'll propose a quick turn: cabin reset, galley and lavatory deep-clean, all windows inside and out, and a waterless exterior wash of the fuselage, wings and tail. That takes three hours and leaves the jet looking flight-ready even if the polish and brightwork wait for a longer ground time. The handler's operations team will tell us if there's a slot margin or if the departure is locked to a PPR time; we adjust the scope to fit. For a fleet programme, we schedule the heavier work—paint correction, ceramic coating, gear-bay detail—during planned overnight or multi-day maintenance stops, so the revenue flying never waits on appearance.

Which detailing services make sense for an aircraft based at Girona year-round?

A based aircraft accumulates exposure: every flight brings turbine soot onto the belly and nacelles, every night on the apron adds salt haze and dust, every cabin cycle leaves fingerprints on the wood and oils on the leather. For a jet flying ten to fifteen legs a month out of LEGE, we recommend a fleet-care programme that layers quick turns, monthly interiors and quarterly exterior correction. The quick turn—cabin, galley, lavatory, windows and a waterless fuselage wash—happens between legs, typically every second or third flight, so passengers always board a fresh cabin. Once a month, during a longer ground period, we perform a full interior detail: all leather cleaned and conditioned, carpets extracted, sidewalls wiped, galley and lavatory stripped and disinfected, wood veneer oiled. That cycle prevents the dirt from embedding and keeps the materials supple.

Every three months we decontaminate and polish the exterior—clay the paint, single-stage compound, polish the brightwork—to remove the oxidation and salt film that dull the finish. If the paint is in good health and the operator wants to extend the gloss and reduce wash frequency, we apply a ceramic coating after the annual correction; the hydrophobic layer sheds water and contaminants for two to three years, and a waterless wash every two weeks is enough to maintain it. Gear bays and the belly get detailed twice a year, and we disinfect the cabin air path quarterly. That rhythm costs less than fixing neglect—re-polishing oxidised paint or replacing UV-faded leather—and the aircraft always shows well when the owner or a charter client steps aboard.