Thirty years ago, entrepreneur Andrew Walters embarked on a new venture in what was then the relatively immature UK business aviation sector. After selling his air cargo business in 1986, he launched Regional Airports Ltd. in 1990 and then looked for assets to acquire, walking straight into the quagmire of British airport politics.
First, he tried to buy Luton Airport on the north side of the UK capital, but the local government opted to keep it in public ownership. His chance came when he was able to sign a 125-year lease for Biggin Hill Airport, on the southeast side of London. The group also includes Southend Airport to the east of the city.
“It turned out I’d stepped into a battle between central and local government,” Walters told AIN. While the government in Westminster wanted Biggin Hill to be London’s general aviation airport with some small-scale regional airline services, the London borough of Bromley—which in 1974 had acquired the former Royal Air Force base from the Ministry of Defence under a 25-year covenant to keep it open—now wanted to use it for housing development.
This contest ended up enriching multiple lawyers as it reached the High Court and Court of Appeal, but eventually, it was accepted that Biggin Hill would become a business aviation gateway, vying for traffic with Luton, Farnborough, London City, Stansted, and the RAF’s Northolt airfield.
“Since then, we’ve been able to convince the local community that what we do is positive,” said Walters. “We told them we would grow to have 2,500 people working in and around the airport by 2030, and we’re already at more than 1,800, generating £200 million of economic value to the community every year.”
Over the past three decades, business aviation in Europe has expanded its horizons greatly, with growing numbers of aircraft needing somewhere to land and get support. “The industry is much more vertically integrated now, a bit like the car industry, with manufacturers working harder to hold on to customers and provide service and support,” said Walters.
Biggin Hill’s part in this evolution has been to nurture the growth of an ecosystem of businesses on its 500-acre site so that it is more than just a place to land and move on. The opening of Bombardier’s service center is a prime aspect of this ambition.
Demand for companies to recruit skilled staff with high-paid jobs is now so strong that there is insufficient affordable local housing. This has prompted Walters and his team to build temporary accommodation where the growing workforce can stay. It is also advancing plans to help establish an aviation training college.
In the competition for traffic flying in and out of the London area, Biggin Hill competes strongly with the other airports. One factor holding it back is the lack of an instrument approach. This is not for lack of trying, as the company has spent five years and at least £1 million trying to convince the UK Civil Aviation Authority to give the go-ahead.
“It is a weakness, and we feel sore about it,” said Walters, explaining a litany of obstacles to getting approval. Biggin Hill has just submitted an application for a new approach to Runway 3 and plans to test this in the fall. “But this time, the application will not be arriving on the [CAA’s] desk cold, and it really is decision time.”
As part of the bid to establish itself as a true all-weather airport, Biggin Hill has also invested in AutoMet en-route weather software. This provides aircrew with accurate meteorological data for inbound flights up to 24 hours ahead of time.
Conscious of environmental concerns about private aviation, the airport is looking to invest in solar power panels as part of efforts to operate on a carbon-neutral basis by 2029. It is also looking to attract eVTOL aircraft operators and the ecosystem supporting the emerging electric aviation sector and has set aside at least 30 acres of land for this purpose.
Over the past decade, Walters and his team—which includes his son Robert as commercial director—have doubled Biggin Hill’s share of the London area market for business aviation traffic. Over the next few decades, the airport’s management team sees constraints elsewhere playing to its favor.
“I don’t see Heathrow getting a third runway or the RAF being able to continue to operate Northolt as if it were a civil airport,” Walters commented. In his view, commercial pressures at Luton and Stansted are likely to accept growth in low-cost airline traffic in a way that impinges on the flexibility business aircraft need.
“It’s been a very good investment—a lot harder than I’d anticipated, but very enjoyable and a wonderful challenge shared with some very nice people,” he concluded. “I wouldn’t change a minute of it.”