Fleet Care Program at Pula (LDPL)

Why does a fleet program make sense at a seasonal airport like Pula?

Pula's traffic is overwhelmingly seasonal—July 2024 alone recorded 301,792 passengers against 509,397 for the entire year—and most flights are holiday charters concentrated in the July-August peak. If your aircraft are based here or fly regular rotations during the summer, you face the same problem every operator does: ramp congestion, handler workload at capacity, and long waits for ad-hoc services when everyone else is queuing for the same slot.

A fleet program flips that equation. We build your service calendar in the winter, before the summer rush, and reserve crew capacity specifically for your tail numbers. When you arrive on the apron in mid-July, you are not competing for attention; your aircraft is already in the book, the crew knows the spec, and the turnaround begins the moment you shut down. The program also smooths your cashflow: instead of unpredictable invoices every time you call, you pay a fixed monthly amount per aircraft, twelve months running, regardless of how many quick turns or AOG calls you actually use.

What changes at Pula that affects how we schedule detailing work?

Pula sits at 274 feet elevation, six kilometres from the city centre, with a single 2,946-metre runway oriented 09/27. The airport has no permanent FBO or general-aviation terminal, so all handling is arranged through the commercial handlers present at the airport, and ramp access depends on their coordination and your airside escort. Operating hours are not restricted year-round, but the seasonal traffic pattern means that in summer the apron is busy from early morning through late evening, while in winter you may find the airport nearly empty outside scheduled airline movements.

For detailing, the seasonality matters more than the infrastructure. In July and August, expect every handler to be stretched, every stand occupied, and every service—fuel, catering, cleaning—running behind schedule. A fleet program reserves your slot months in advance and guarantees crew availability even when the ramp is at peak load. In winter, when traffic drops sharply, we can schedule longer work—full exterior decon, compound polish, deep cabin cleans—without the pressure of a tight turnaround or a waiting departure slot.

The Adriatic climate also dictates the calendar. Salt spray, high summer UV, and seasonal pollen all degrade paint and brightwork faster than inland bases. We typically schedule exterior washes every two to three weeks during the summer operating season, a single-stage polish in late spring before the peak, and a full decon and protection cycle in autumn once the charter season winds down.

How does the program handle quick turns between charter legs?

Most charter operators at Pula run back-to-back legs during the summer: inbound in the morning, outbound the same afternoon or evening, sometimes with only an hour or two on the ground. The fleet program is built around exactly that rhythm. When you file your summer schedule with us in the spring, we map every arrival and note the turnaround window. If you have ninety minutes between legs, we plan a rinseless exterior wash, cabin tidy, galley wipe-down and lavatory service—work that fits inside your ground time without delaying pushback.

The crew arrives on the apron with your aircraft's service history already loaded: which areas were polished last month, which cabin materials need no-touch handling, where the cheat line has micro-scratches that need watching. There is no briefing call, no walkaround negotiation. The tech log is signed, the GPU is connected, and the wash begins while your passengers are still in the terminal. If the turnaround runs long or you go AOG, the program includes priority reallocation: we pull crew from non-contract work to keep your aircraft moving.

What documentation and photo reports come with the Fleet Care Program?

Every visit generates a service record: date, work performed, products used, crew names, and a time-stamped photo set showing the aircraft before, during and after the work. The photos are not marketing shots; they are evidence-quality images of leading edges, belly panels, nacelles, winglets, gear bays, and any area where we noted paint damage, corrosion, or wear that needs the flight department's attention. If we find a static port cover missing or a pitot cover left on, it goes in the report with a photo and a note in the tech log.

The reports live in a shared folder you can access anytime, and we compile them into a quarterly review document that tracks appearance trends across your fleet: which tail numbers are ageing faster, which routes or bases are hardest on the paint, when the next compound polish or brightwork restoration is due. That review happens as a scheduled call with your ops team, usually in March, June, September and December, so you can plan maintenance downtime and budget for any additional work before it becomes an AOG issue.

What does the fixed monthly budget actually cover?

The monthly fee is calculated per tail number and covers a defined scope of recurring work: typically two to four exterior quick turns per month (rinseless or dry wash, depending on contamination), one full interior detail, and access to the 24/7 AOG line for unscheduled requests. Seasonal work—spring polish, autumn decon, winter storage prep—is included if it falls within the twelve-month program period and is scheduled in advance.

What the budget does not cover: major paint correction (compound polish beyond the annual cycle), brightwork restoration that requires multiple stages, deep stain removal from cabin soft goods, or work that requires the aircraft to be towed to a hangar off-site. Those jobs are quoted separately, but because you are already in the program, they jump the queue and get crew priority over one-off requests from transient aircraft.

The advantage is predictability. You know in January what your appearance costs will be in August, and you are not hit with surprise invoices every time you call for a quick turn before a charter leg. If you use fewer services than the program allows, the unused capacity rolls into the next quarter; if you need more, we invoice the overage at the contract rate, which is lower than our transient pricing.

How do we start a fleet program if our aircraft are not yet based at Pula?

You do not need to be permanently based at LDPL to join the program; you need to operate regular rotations that justify a twelve-month commitment. If you fly into Pula ten times a summer for charter work, or if you position an aircraft here for the season and then move it in winter, that is enough. We build the calendar around your actual schedule, not a fixed base.

The process starts with a planning call: you share your expected flight schedule, the aircraft type, the current condition of the paint and cabin, and any specific concerns—cold-soaked leading edges, belly staining from de-icing fluid, galley odours, whatever keeps your chief pilot awake at night. We then draft a service calendar, map it against the airport's seasonal congestion pattern, and propose a monthly budget. Once you approve, we reserve crew capacity and add your tail numbers to the priority list. The contract runs for twelve months and renews automatically unless you cancel with sixty days' notice.