Airport Spotlight: London Biggin Hill Continues Growth Path

London Biggin Hill Airport (EGKB) is adding improvements to allow it to grow further, following the significant industrial presence already established at the airport, notably Bombardier’s vast maintenance facility.

This summer, the airport has been resurfacing the main runway—Runway 03-21—which has grooved asphalt. It is on the verge of adding a GPS approach to Runway 03, something many operators, mainly from the U.S., have been requesting so they can incorporate the airport in their operations.

This is currently subject to test flights and is expected to become a published approach in November.

London Biggin Hill also has a new Runway Visual Range (RVR) reporting system, new runway edge lights and centerline lights "for the first time," says Robert Walters, the airport's commercial director. All these enhancements will make Biggin Hill an even more viable option for business jet operators coming to London.

"Our journey started properly in 2018," after many years of business aviation stagnation following the financial crisis of 2008, Walters said. The groundwork for Biggin Hill's success in business aviation, however, started many years before, with a key factor being the support from the local community and council and the decision by the London mayor to designate the airport as part of the city's strategic development plan.

The action by Qatar-based Rizon Jet to establish a large hangar and FBO facility at Biggin Hill in August 2010 was also an eye-opening moment. That facility later became home to Bombardier and Signature Flight Support, before Bombardier decided to put Biggin Hill on the map—building a vast MRO facility on the old Runway 11-29 (now a taxiway) in March 2022. The facility became the Canadian manufacturer's main European base for heavy maintenance and support of its Global family of business jets. The company is now in the process of building a large hangar for painting aircraft, which Roberts said will make it a full-service center for its customers.

The opening of the Landing Hotel on the airport in 2023 was another major step forward, says Walters, while Oriens Aviation, the Pilatus dealer for the British Isles, among other things, moved to a larger hangar as it grew. Castle Helicopters also expanded its operations by taking on the former Oriens hangar, which was alongside its existing, maintenance-focused hangar.

The heritage side of the airfield has also expanded with the Heritage Hangar moving to a large hangar in 2016 as its fleet of restored Supermarine Spitfires expanded, along with its operations flying two-seat Spitfires. The airport has also continued to invest in new hangars adjacent to the terminal/control tower building. The historic nature of this control tower means it will be central to the airport's plans to modernize the terminal building to better serve its own FBO operations for business aviation.

A Quick Helicopter Ride 

A major attraction of London Biggin Hill Airport to business aviation has been the fast transit into London—the "Biggin to Battersea" helishuttle. Taking the shuttle is easy from the Castle Aviation hangar, and although we did not land at Battersea, the point was made. Luckily, the cloud base was more than 1,000 ft. so the pilot of our Leonardo AW109 Trekker was happy to go.

We did a right turn at Battersea and followed the Thames east through London with landmarks all visible including the Houses of Parliament (Westminster), the Olympic Stadium, Tower Bridge and The Millennium Dome, now the O2,  before we went south to Biggin Hill again—all-in-all a 17-min. flight. The only disappointment was the weather, with low clouds and showers, that made it difficult to get a good aerial image of London Biggin Hill Airport.

Back on the ground, Declan Lehane, Castle Aviation's operations manager, said the shuttle had proved to be a major success for the company, which is based at Liskeard in Cornwall, the most westerly county of England. The company is celebrating its 40^th year in 2025 and has had a base at Biggin Hill for 12 years.

Lehane describes the airport as "the perfect place [around London] to base a fleet of helicopters." This consists of AW109 twins and now also an AW139, which Lehane said reflects the increasing average size of the jets coming into the airport. These clients tend to expect a larger helicopter with more seats. He said as well as the Battersea shuttle, the charter side of the operation has "really picked up" as well, with flights to France have become increasingly popular.

Lehane said business is sometimes so brisk that the company cannot meet demand, but it tries its best to help, he said. Castle has "a lot of helicopters, but still not as many as we need," he added. And with the airport traffic likely to increase again with the recent runway improvements, it is likely to need even more helicopters available for the shuttle service.

Having a maintenance base next to what Lehane refers to as its "showroom" hangar—the one the clients usually use—helps enormously, he said. This includes maintaining the Leonardo AW109 and AW139 helicopters. It also has approval to maintain some other types of helicopters, such as Airbus EC135—now the H135—and the Bell 505.

Castle continues to expand through organic growth—it has another AW139 on order from Leonardo, for example—and through acquisitions. It recently purchased HeliWork, based at Thruxton Aerodrome west of London. Lehane said it will be an important move forward for Castle to be able to do its own blade repairs, as well as for third parties.

The airport tour concluded with a visit to Bombardier's maintenance facility, which is full predominantly of Global 7500s in various states of repair and overhaul. Bombardier’s facility can fit a total of 18 Global 7500-size aircraft, including nine on the north side and nine on the south side.

A company representative said Bombardier is happy with its decision to grow its presence at Biggin Hill and said the move was working very well, with the new paint hangar which is being built at present designed to make it a one-stop shop from when it opens in August 2026.

The main facility also includes 16 offices, a boardroom and other facilities, along with a room where interiors can be designed with specialists from F-List. Drawers of samples are available so that bespoke interiors can be specified, which is useful given that aircraft that are moving to new owners often go to maintenance, or existing owners may choose to upgrade or refresh their aircraft.

Finally, Bombardier has a separate aircraft-on-ground facility to respond if a customer's aircraft needs to be repaired somewhere remote.

Conclusion

London Biggin Hill Airport is clearly not the only option for business jet operators, but compared to 20 or even 10 years ago, it has continued on a steady growth trajectory with some smart moves, including nurturing a positive and supportive relationship with its local community. For example, strict noise measures must be observed, and it is a major local employer.

Its latest smart move is to update the runway and navigation aids, as it has been told by operators that this will make it more viable and more attractive. It added a hotel, attracted maintenance businesses, with more to come. For example, future considerations include more hangars and an aviation college to address the shortage of engineers, in particular.

Ian Sheppard is a senior researcher for Aviation Week's AC-U-KWIK.