The predicted surge in corporate and private traffic into the London area during the Olympic Games certainly occurred, but at a lower level than the industry had hoped for, according to industry executives.
All the business aviation airports had spare capacity available, according to booking agency PrivateFly. The agency reported a 40% increase in bookings, much of which occurred - according to the company's chief executive Adam Twidell - as a result of Londoners fleeing the Olympic circus.
All the players in the business aviation field - particularly the London area airfields that specialise in serving the private aviation sector - were expecting an offset caused by non-Olympic-related businesses avoiding the region at that time, but found it difficult to predict the extent of it because of the freedom regular business jet users have to make decisions at very short notice.
The UK CAA had predicted before the event that the Paralympic Games would not cause any noticeable year-on-year change in business aircraft movements - and that appears to be borne out by UK air navigation service provider NATS' reports of traffic levels as the Paralympics began.
The special arrival and departure routeings created for the main games period on a temporary basis lapsed a couple of days after they ended.
NATS said that during the main Olympics there was a 3.5% overall increase in traffic in the London terminal manoeuvring area - mostly business aviation movements - and noted particularly that Biggin Hill and Farnborough aerodromes increased their traffic by 19% and 16%, respectively.
Yet air traffic management-related delays during the Olympics was only 4% of what it was during the same period in 2011, NATS has reported.
Roger Walker, TAG Farnborough airport's director of operations, said: "TAG Farnborough has been busy, particularly with heads of state and International Olympic Committee member flights, providing good first and last impressions of London. The service has been seamless, with many positive comments received from our VIPs.
"We have been planning for the Olympics for over 18 months, and our new infrastructure - including hangars, apron and arrivals lounge - has been well received. It has been a particularly eventful period, with the Farnborough International air show ending just 12 days before the Olympic Games' opening ceremony."
Luton airport's main fixed base operator, Signature Flight Support, has not reported Olympic figures - but they are believed to be up there with Farnborough's, even if they were usually drop-off movements that immediately returned to base, or found parking elsewhere because of Luton's lack of space.
Oxford airport says most of the extra business traffic it attracted arrived in the days just before the Olympics opening ceremony, and that it noted "a big increase in heavy metal" - with many of the movements being new customers. However, it also noted that many Oxford-based business operators left London for holidays during the Olympics, or put their aircraft into maintenance at that time. Fuel sales at Oxford were up by 40%, according to business development manager James Dillon-Godfray.
Biggin Hill confirms the NATS figure of a 19% traffic increase, and said that it had about 80 business jets parked for some period during the games. Biggin Hill airport business development manager Robert Walters said that the slot allocation and revised ATM system that had been the source of some nervousness before the event was "excellent", presenting no problems at all. He summed up Biggin's experience as: "Not quite the party we expected, but we didn't come away looking like idiots either."
Twidell's assessment is that traffic was about 25% lower than the 3,000 additional business aviation movements predicted by the UK Department for Transport, but in retrospect he said he believes the business aviation industry's experience of the London Olympics "will bring long-term benefits to the [UK] private aviation sector". He says that a large proportion of the extra Olympic traffic came from corporations like Coca Cola outside Europe using their own private fleet.
Twidell explains: "Private jet traffic was not scared away from London, [but] the predicted high levels of demand were just not there in the first place. This was a 'Peoples' Olympics', where athletes chose to travel by Tube not limo, and some private jet travellers chose business class."
The longer term benefit, according to Twidell, will come from the fact that ATM and security was so well handled as to be invisible, and that "London has been showcased as the city that delivers despite the global recession and security threats." He also points out that the event has proven the need for multiple airports accessible to the business aviation community.
Meanwhile, NATS expects to see some Olympic business spin-offs - Brazilian ATM specialists observed much of the NATS operation during the three weeks to prepare for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016. NATS has also had a delegation from Russian air traffic control, ahead of the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014.
NATS managing director Martin Rolfe says: "In the spirit of the Games, the whole operation came together to make sure that NATS played its part in what was an extraordinarily successful Olympics. There is plenty we can take away from this experience and apply to our day to day operation. We have already been approached by countries scheduled to hold the Games in the near future to understand how NATS can support them in the challenges they face."
Source: Flight International
