Aircraft Detailing at Naples Capodichino (LIRN)

What changes at Naples Capodichino?

Naples sits at 294 feet elevation with a single runway—06/24, 2628 metres—and operates under a strict curfew: the airport closes from 22:30 to 03:30 local except for delayed inbound flights. That window shapes every detailing schedule. If your aircraft lands at 21:00 and departs at 09:00 the next morning, you have overnight access to the stand; if you arrive mid-afternoon for a same-evening departure, the work happens in a compressed apron window before the curfew cuts movement.

The field is slot-coordinated, so PPR and handler coordination begin days before arrival. Four handling agents operate at Capodichino—Sky Services, AviaVIP (Argos VIP Private Handling, available 04:00–21:00 UTC), Alisud/GH Napoli and Fly Service—and each has its own apron procedures and escort requirements. We hold a permanent airside pass and liaise with whichever agent you select, but the handler remains your single point of contact for stand allocation, GPU, lavatory service and fuel. Signature offers trip-support arrangement rather than a full FBO presence.

Summer Mediterranean humidity and winter Tyrrhenian salt load the paint quickly. A quarterly exterior decontamination and single-stage polish keep the fuselage hydrophobic and the cheat line free of exhaust stain; brightwork on nacelles and leading edges tarnishes faster in coastal air and benefits from a twice-yearly hand polish.

Which services fit a Naples turnaround?

If you have three to five hours between legs, a Quick Turn resets the cabin to flight-ready standard: galley restocked surfaces wiped, lavatory cleaned and disinfected, windows polished inside and out, carpets vacuumed, seat leather spot-cleaned, and a waterless exterior wash of the fuselage, nose, winglets and tail. The aircraft is released with a tidy cabin and a clean profile, no water runoff, no wait for drying.

A six-to-eight-hour overnight or day-stop allows a Full Interior Detail—deep extraction of carpets, conditioning of all leather, cleaning of veneer and sidewalls, galley degreasing, lavatory scrub and a pass over the cockpit no-touch avionics and glareshield—paired with an Exterior Dry Wash or, if the paint needs correction, a Complete Detail that includes decontamination, single-stage machine polish and a coat of hydrophobic sealant over the entire airframe.

Longer visits—three days or a week—suit Ceramic Coating, which requires paint correction, brightwork polish, application in controlled temperature and a twelve-hour cure before the next flight. We schedule around your owner's itinerary and your handler's stand availability, and we update you by photograph at each stage.

How do you coordinate with the handling agent at LIRN?

The handler is your contract; we are the third-party specialist they escort onto the stand. Once you confirm which FBO or handling agent will meet your aircraft, you tell them a detailing crew will arrive, and you tell us the handler's name, the scheduled block times and the stand number. We contact the handler directly to confirm airside access, to verify that the stand has GPU if we need cabin power for an interior detail, and to agree the window during which the aircraft will remain on chocks.

The handler expects us to carry our own equipment, to stay within the area they define, to avoid interference with fuel or catering trucks, and to leave before they begin the pre-departure walk-around. We bring our own water in five-litre jugs for rinseless wash—Capodichino's water rules and apron drainage mean we never connect a hose or produce runoff—and we remove all waste before releasing the aircraft. If the detail runs longer than planned, we notify both you and the handler; if weather or an early departure shortens the window, we adapt the scope and note the change in the report.

What does recurring work at Naples look like?

If your jet is based at Capodichino or returns every two weeks on a charter rotation, a Fleet Care Program replaces ad-hoc requests with a twelve-month schedule: a quick turn after every revenue leg, a full interior detail monthly, an exterior decontamination and polish each quarter, and brightwork restoration twice a year. The program is built around your flight plan—we receive the schedule from your dispatcher or chief pilot, we book the handler visits in advance, and we invoice monthly against completed work rather than asking for approval each time.

Recurring clients also receive priority during high-season congestion and shorter lead times when an AOG or a schedule change moves the aircraft to Naples on two days' notice. The same two-person crew works your airframe every visit, learns the cabin materials and the paint history, and notes any developing issue—a cracked side-ledge veneer, a nacelle ding, a belly panel with chipped paint—in the photo report so your maintenance team can plan the repair during the next scheduled downtime.

Why does the photo report matter at a hub like Naples?

Every detail at Capodichino is documented in a time-stamped photo report that shows the aircraft before we start, the work in progress and the result at release. The report travels with the tech log as proof of the visit, and it gives your chief pilot or your management company a permanent record of the airframe's condition on that date. If an owner questions a cabin stain three months later, the photographs show whether it existed before the last detail or appeared afterward. If you file an insurance claim for hail damage or a ground-vehicle strike, the report establishes the paint's condition on a known date.

The document also closes the loop with the handler. Because we are a third party on their apron, the handler wants confirmation that we arrived, completed the agreed scope and left the stand clean. We copy them on the final report so they know the aircraft is ready for the next service and so their own records match yours. That transparency keeps the relationship smooth and makes the next visit faster to arrange.

How do you manage timing between two Mediterranean legs?

Mediterranean charter and owner itineraries often compress: Naples to Olbia in the morning, Olbia back to Naples in the evening, then Naples to Ibiza the next day. The detail has to happen in the gap without pushing the next departure or forcing the crew to wait for the aircraft. We ask for your block-off time, your expected block-on at Naples, and your next departure slot; we then propose a scope that fits the window and leaves thirty minutes of margin before the handler begins the pre-flight walk-around.

If the inbound flight is delayed or if the curfew threatens the evening departure, we trim the scope—exterior only, or cabin only—and note the change in the report. If the delay is long enough that the detail would interfere with the slot, we cancel without charge and propose the next available window. The goal is a predictable result that does not add variables to your dispatcher's day or require your crew to manage a vendor on the apron.