The private aviation glossary
104 terms explained in plain English — from ACMI to wet lease.
C
CIQ (customs, immigration, quarantine) airports
CIQ refers to the border formalities of customs, immigration and quarantine, and to whether an airport can provide them for private flights. Not every airport can: many small fields have no border officers on site, so on international flights you may have to land first at a designated port of entry, or the operator must pre-book officers to attend, often for a fee and with limited hours. Clearing CIQ on a private flight is usually quick, done in the FBO or on the aircraft, but in some countries, notably China, India and parts of Africa, it can take an hour or more. Check the arrival airport's CIQ hours before agreeing on a landing time.
Curfew airports
A curfew is a period, usually overnight, during which an airport bans or heavily restricts movements to limit noise for neighbours. London City closes from Saturday lunchtime to Sunday midday and every night; Zurich, Geneva, Frankfurt and Sydney restrict night flights; Van Nuys, John Wayne and Naples in the US enforce noise curfews on jets, and Ibiza and Palma limit night operations in summer. Curfews are a hard constraint, so a late-running dinner or delayed departure can mean diverting to another airport, an overnight stay or a fine for the operator. Ask your operator about curfews at both ends before setting an evening departure time.
Customs pre-clearance airports
Pre-clearance is US customs and immigration inspection carried out before departure, at airports such as Dublin, Shannon, Aruba, Nassau, Bermuda, Toronto, Vancouver and Abu Dhabi, so the aircraft arrives in the United States as a domestic flight and passengers walk straight out. For business aviation, Shannon is the classic stop for transatlantic flights, and it lets the aircraft land at US airports with no customs facility of their own. In Europe, the equivalent concept is a first point of entry into the Schengen area; once cleared in, say, Nice, you can continue to Florence without further formalities. Pre-clearance cuts arrival time but adds a stop and a fee.
F
FBO (fixed-base operator) airports
An FBO is the private terminal at an airport that handles business aircraft: fuel, parking, crew and passenger lounges, customs facilitation, catering orders and ground transport. The name comes from early US aviation, when operators with a permanent base were distinguished from itinerant barnstormers. Big chains include Signature, Atlantic, Jet Aviation and Million Air, alongside many independents. Passengers arrive at the FBO rather than the main terminal, typically 15 minutes before departure, and walk or drive to the aircraft. FBO fees, from a few hundred to several thousand dollars per visit at busy airports, are passed through in your charter quote; an aircraft that buys fuel usually gets some of them waived.
G
Ground handling airports
Ground handling covers the physical services an aircraft receives on the ramp: marshalling, towing, chocks, ground power, lavatory and water service, baggage loading, cleaning and de-icing, along with the passenger-facing services of the FBO or handling agent. On a charter invoice it appears as a per-visit fee, occasionally with separate line items for specific services, and costs vary hugely: a few hundred dollars at a US regional airport, several thousand at London Luton, Geneva or Dubai, and more where a full handling agent is compulsory. It is one of the fees most often omitted from headline quotes, so ask whether handling at all airports on your itinerary is included.
H
Handling agent airports
A handling agent is the company that arranges everything an aircraft needs at an airport where the operator has no staff: parking, fuel, customs and immigration, slot and PPR requests, crew transport and hotel bookings, catering and passenger meet-and-greet. Outside North America, where FBOs dominate, handling agents such as Universal, Jetex, ExecuJet and local firms are the norm, and at large commercial airports they are often mandatory. Their fees, plus the airport's own charges, appear as handling on your invoice and can run from $500 at a small European field to $5,000 or more at a major Asian or Middle Eastern hub. The quality of the agent shapes how smooth your arrival feels.
P
PPR (prior permission required) airports
PPR means an airport requires operators to request and receive permission before landing, separate from any national landing permit or air traffic slot. Many smaller and privately owned airports use PPR to manage parking, customs availability and opening hours; examples include Cannes-Mandelieu, Samedan (St Moritz), Sion and many Greek island airfields in summer, as well as airports with limited ramp space during major events. Lead times range from an hour to several days, and PPR may be refused if the ramp is full. Your operator or handling agent files the request; you simply need to understand that a small, convenient airport is not guaranteed to be available at the last minute.
R
Ramp fee airports
A ramp fee is the charge an FBO or airport levies simply for parking an aircraft on its apron, sometimes called a facility or parking fee. It is typically waived if the crew buys a minimum quantity of fuel, which is why operators sometimes tanker fuel or top up at airports where they would rather not. At high-demand airports the fee can be significant: several hundred dollars for a light jet and more than $1,000 a day for a large-cabin aircraft at Aspen, Teterboro or Nice in season. Overnight parking adds daily charges, and some airports require aircraft to move to remote stands or leave altogether during peak events.
S
Slot airports
A slot is a permitted time window for an aircraft to take off or land at a congested airport. At fully coordinated airports such as London Heathrow, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Nice, Ibiza in summer, Tokyo Haneda and the New York area airports, no flight can operate without one, and business aviation slots are usually allocated after the airlines have taken theirs. Slots come with tolerance windows of 15–30 minutes; miss yours and the aircraft may wait hours for the next. Because a charter operator must request slots for a specific aircraft and time, late changes to your departure can cost you the slot, which is why crews push for punctuality at coordinated airports.
Slot coordination airports
Slot coordination is the administrative system, run by a coordinator such as ACL in the UK or COHOR in France, that allocates take-off and landing times at airports where demand exceeds capacity. Airports are classed as Level 1 (no coordination), Level 2 (facilitated, meaning voluntary schedule adjustment) or Level 3 (fully coordinated, where a slot is mandatory). For business aviation the practical effect is that Level 3 airports need requests filed in advance through the operator's handling agent or a trip-support company, and slots can be refused at peak times. Events like the Cannes Film Festival, the Monaco Grand Prix or Art Basel can temporarily push normally open airports into slot coordination.
Stage 3 / Stage 4 noise airports
Stage 3 and Stage 4 (ICAO Chapter 3 and 4) are certification noise standards for jet aircraft, each roughly 10 decibels quieter than its predecessor; the newest aircraft meet Stage 5 (Chapter 14). Nearly all business jets built since the 1990s are Stage 3 or better, while older Learjets, Gulfstream IIs and early Citations that were only Stage 2 have been banned from most of the US, Europe and many other countries. Some airports go further, restricting or surcharging Stage 3 aircraft at night or banning them outright. For an aircraft buyer, an older jet's noise category can determine where and when it can operate and its future resale market.