GENERAL AVIATION

DEFINITION
General Aviation indicates all air traffic excluding airlines and military flights. It includes the Business Aviation – people that use aircrafts of their own property or simply rented out for business purposes – and the Corporate Aviation – big companies’ aircraft used to move employees from one place to another.

An air-taxi, which is simply an aircraft that charges a determined rate for a specific route, is also part of the General Aviation traffic.

MARKET SIZE
You might think that the General Aviation (GA) sector is small, and compared to the commercial airline carriers it certainly is. However, every year more than 500 jets are delivered for private or business purposes for a total value of more than 8 billion dollars. And that figure is for the U.S.A. only. That’s a lot of jets needing GA care and assistance!

REASONS FOR GROWTH 
The truth is that safety, security, comfort, privacy issues all have determined a rapid increase in GA traffic over the past decade. Also, the rise of fractional ownership – by which many companies can share the property of a single business jet – and the price efficiency of air-taxi companies such as Netjets, have considerably expanded the GA market.

FBO
The increase in importance of GA traffic has meant that many operators have specialized in supplying handling assistance to private jets. These are the Fixed Base Operators (FBOs). While every airport can have a dedicated General Aviation service, not all have a FBO. The difference is given by the amount of identity and specialization of services offered on an all-year-round term.

Eccelsa Aviation is one of only four FBOs operating in Italy, the others being Rome Ciampino, Milan Linate, and Florence.

ECCELSA AVIATION

HISTORY
Eccelsa Aviation came into existence in 2003. Assistance to private flights at Olbia airport has been given since the opening of the airport itself in the 1970s when HH Prince Aga Khan and his guests – very high society and royal family members from all over Europe and the Middle East – used to fly to Sardegna for their holidays.

COSTA SMERALDA
In fact, in the 1960s HH Prince Aga Khan founded the Costa Smeralda (Emerald Coast), a consortium of people who wanted to enjoy the beauty of the land and the sea of northern Sardegna giving birth to an architectural style that added value to the environment and produced a unique enchanting effect. Since no air carrier operated in Olbia, Meridiana - Italy’s biggest private airline - was founded and Olbia Airport started to grow in passengers and aircraft movements.

However, only since 1987 a very basic dedicated summer service for private flights began to be operated. This consisted mainly in the transportation of crew and passengers to/from their aircraft. Since 1989 it is possible to distinguish a defined General Aviation handling activity in Olbia.

GEASAR S.p.A.
The major change came in 2003, when Geasar S.p.A., which acquired the official position of permanent airport management company in the same year, decided to make important investments in structures and personnel fully dedicated to the handling of private flights. Geasar S.p.A. – which is owned by Meridiana S.p.A., Sardinian regional Authorities and the Consortium Costa Smeralda – decided to make it a separate business unit (business branch) and to give it a name inspiring Excellence in those who worked for and with it: Eccelsa Aviation was born.

TERMINAL 
Eccelsa Aviation moved to a new terminal building in 2009 with about 5000 square metres of luxurious Passenger Lounges, shops, Crew facilities and offices. It also manages handling operations on a 10 hectares apron fully dedicated to private flights.

Eccelsa Aviation handles more flights than the Commercial Flights’ Terminal of Olbia Airport and is one of the busiest stations in Europe every summer. In fact, it is in the hot season that private air traffic reaches its peek and Eccelsa operates at full capacity.

NOWADAYS
Moreover, Eccelsa Aviation goes further than being a simple General Aviation as defined in the previous section. In fact, Eccelsa handles also humanitarian flights, military flights, national and international governmental mission flights on occasions such as diplomatic visits by Head of States.

Since 2021 Eccelsa Aviation is managed by F2i SGR, Italy's biggest infrastructure investment fund.