French Riviera Airports Announce “Sistering” With MMU

Aeroports de la Côte D’Azur (Booth 5234)–representing Nice, Cannes and Saint-Tropez–announced at EBACE 2014 the establishment of a sister airport relationship with Morristown Airport near New York City, as well as the launch of the French Riviera’s business aviation brand.

The sister airport alliance aims to provide unique products and services to business aviation travelers flying between the French Riviera’s airports and Morristown. “One of the biggest business aviation traffic flows is between our airports and the New York area,” said Aeroports director Michel Tohane. “As a starting position the idea is to facilitate the administrative details for customers, and we are going to start building our partnership around those ideas. And also to learn from each other about environmental issues and integration into the community.”

Maria Sheridan, Morristown Airport’s senior director of government affairs and business development, said that customs service is expedited at the airport and that because of ground traffic, it can be faster to get to New York City from Morristown than the more proximate Teterboro Airport.

Branding and logos highlighting the new relationship will begin appearing online and in print marketing materials developed by the airports. Going forward, the sister airports may organize special offerings, such as holiday trips to New York City. Tohane said the sisterhood could expand to include other popular business aviation airports around the world.

The Aeroports business aviation brand initiative aims to raise the quality of service at its airports. The organization has established a training program for its airports’ employees with five-star hotels in the region, including the Hotel Adagio Monaco Palais Josephine, in an effort to improve the level of service delivered to customers. The airport staffs are likely to be tested on that issue in the next few days, with the Cannes Film Festival and Monaco’s Grand Prix both taking place. “We’re expecting 650 general aviation aircraft for the two events,” Tohane said. “We only have 150 parking places.”