Aircraft Detailing at Stuttgart (EDDS)

What changes at Stuttgart for aircraft appearance work?

Stuttgart is a fully coordinated Level 3 airport, which means every business-aviation movement needs an airport slot and your turnaround window is fixed by Flughafenkoordination Deutschland. The single runway, 07/25 at 3,345 metres, sits at 1,276 feet elevation. The General Aviation Terminal—Flughafenstrasse 116, opened in 1998—is separate from the passenger terminals and staffed 05:30 to 23:00 local (until 22:30 on weekends). Kurz Aviation Service operates the GAT and two hangars there, and we coordinate all apron access through them.

Night-flight restrictions compress the evening: no jet take-offs after 23:00 and no jet arrivals between 23:30 and 06:00 (delayed landings to midnight only if scheduled before 23:30). That means late-evening detailing requires pre-arrangement with the handler and often moves into the morning slot. Customs and immigration are available 24/7 at the GAT, so aircraft-of-entry turnarounds are straightforward. The airport sits 13 kilometres south of Stuttgart city centre, and Messe Stuttgart—the state trade-fair centre—is directly adjacent, so trade-fair weeks bring business-aviation peaks, pressure on parking and tighter slot availability.

How does slot coordination affect the timing of a quick turn at EDDS?

Because every movement is slot-coordinated, your departure time is fixed the moment the slot is confirmed. A quick turn—cabin, lavatory, galley, windows and a waterless exterior pass—takes ninety minutes from chocks-on if the aircraft is cold-soaked and the cabin straightforward. We begin as soon as the handler clears us onto the stand, usually while passengers disembark and catering loads. The tech log is reviewed before we start; any open items around avionics bays, static ports or pitot covers are noted and those areas remain no-touch.

The GAT apron is compact, so ground-power and air-conditioning carts are often shared across multiple stands. If your slot window is tight—common during trade-fair weeks or morning peaks—we ask the handler to confirm GPU availability before we arrive. The quick turn is documented with before-and-after photographs of the cabin, galley, lavatory and exterior, uploaded to a shared folder or emailed to the chief pilot before engine start. Slot adherence is everything here; the handler will not hold the stand beyond the coordinated time, so our crew size and sequence are planned around your departure slot from the first call.

What does the handler expect when a third-party detailing crew works at the General Aviation Terminal?

Kurz Aviation Service manages the GAT and expects every contractor to hold a valid airside pass or be escorted throughout the visit. We carry our own passes for Stuttgart and notify the handler 24 hours before the turnaround with crew names, vehicle registration and estimated time on stand. All cleaning chemistry and equipment are declared in advance—waterless wash concentrate, interior dressings, polishes—and Material Safety Data Sheets are available on request, though in practice the handler asks for them only during the first job or if a new product appears.

The handler also expects us to follow their ground-movement rules: no vehicle closer than five metres to the aircraft unless the captain or engineer is present, all access steps and GPU leads remain in place until we are finished, and waste from the cabin or lavatory goes into the airport's contracted bins, not ours. If the aircraft moves into Hangar 1 or Hangar 2, we coordinate entry and lighting with the hangar supervisor; heated Hangar 1 is preferred for full interior details in winter, but availability is tight during trade-fair peaks. The handler invoices the operator directly for any hangar time or additional ground-power; we invoice only for the detailing itself.

Does recurring work at Stuttgart make sense for a based fleet?

It does if the aircraft spends more than two nights a month at EDDS. A fleet-care programme schedules quick turns after every inbound leg, a full interior detail monthly, exterior dry wash or rinseless wash every second week, and brightwork polish every quarter. The programme is built around the fleet's usual slot times—early-morning departures, late-afternoon returns—so the same crew becomes familiar with each airframe's cheat line, leading-edge condition, belly panel fit and cabin materials.

Because the GAT is staffed only until 23:00 (22:30 weekends), recurring evening work is scheduled for the 19:00–22:00 window; anything later moves to the following morning before the 06:00 curfew lifts. Hangar availability for winter interiors is reserved a week ahead through the handler. The programme includes a shared photo library, updated after every visit, so the chief pilot and flight-department manager can see the aircraft's appearance trend over twelve months. One-off details—pre-sale inspections, ceramic-coating correction, post-decon polish—are quoted separately and slotted around the recurring calendar, often during longer maintenance stops when the aircraft is already inside and on GPU.

What does a full interior detail look like at the GA Terminal?

A full interior detail is a deep clean and conditioning of every cabin surface: leather seats and sidewalls, veneer, carpets, galley stainless steel, lavatory fixtures, windows and the cockpit. We start at the aft pressure bulkhead and work forward, so the crew can pre-flight the cockpit while we finish the cabin. Vacuum and steam are used on carpets and fabric; leather receives a pH-neutral cleaner and a light conditioner matched to the OEM finish—matte for most Gulfstream and Bombardier cabins, low-sheen for Dassault. Veneer is cleaned with a damp microfibre cloth and no silicone; high-gloss piano finishes are hand-polished only if the owner's manual permits it.

The galley is stripped: all drawers, the coffee maker, the refrigerator seals and the waste-bin housing. Stainless steel is polished to remove water spots and fingerprints. The lavatory is scrubbed—bowl, sink, mirror, sidewalls—and the flush system's exterior wiped down (the system itself remains untouched). Windows are cleaned inside and out if we can reach the exterior from a ladder on the apron; if the aircraft is too tall, the outside waits for a dry wash with a long pole. The entire detail takes four to six hours depending on cabin length and condition, and is documented with a section-by-section photo report uploaded before we leave the stand.

How is the photo report structured and delivered after a detail at Stuttgart?

The report is a dated folder of captioned photographs: exterior before and after from four angles (nose, tail, port side, starboard side), close-ups of the leading edges, engine nacelles, belly and winglets, and interior shots of each cabin zone, the galley, the lavatory and the cockpit if the crew permits it. Brightwork images are taken in natural light to show the mirror finish on spinners and inlets. Any pre-existing damage—paint chips, scratches, corrosion spots, worn carpet edges—is photographed and noted so there is no confusion about what we inherited versus what we caused.

The folder is uploaded to a shared drive or emailed as a compressed archive within two hours of finishing, often before the aircraft departs. If the work was part of a fleet-care programme, the new images are added to the fleet's rolling library so the chief pilot can compare the same leading edge or the same cabin panel across three or six or twelve months. The handler receives a copy of the final exterior shots if they request it, particularly after a ceramic-coating application or a post-decon polish, because those jobs sometimes appear in their own marketing. No customer names or tail numbers are published without written permission; the report is a private record for the operator, not a portfolio piece.