For the first time since 1987 London Heathrow Airport (LHR) finds itself with a new into wing jet fuel supplier, Vitol Aviation. London Heathrow is the busiest International airport in the world and will act as the hub of Vitol Aviation’s growing network of airports and global Aviation business. Entry into London’s Heathrow requires a unique blend of expertise, knowledge and technical capabilities, all of which were made increasingly difficult following the explosion which destroyed the Buncefield oil depot in 2005. Vitol Aviation have made a number of significant long term commitments and investments to make this entry possible, as well as meeting the entry qualifying criteria as judged by the existing industry suppliers in terms of acceptable product quality, product handling regimes, operations standards and robustness of supply.
For the into wing activity Vitol Aviation are looking to the future by supporting a new LHR into wing refuelling company, Swissport. Swissport are a globally recognised into wing refuelling and ground handling company, well known in the US market and with plans to expand their existing European operations. This makes them the perfect refuelling partner for Vitol Aviation as we aim to be part of the current and future growth plans at London Heathrow.
This entry comes at the end of a very successful year for Vitol Aviation as we started operations in Florida in February, entering Orlando Airport and numerous other regional airports in Florida. In the UK, operations finally started in Manchester Airport in April and Spain’s Madrid, Barcelona and Palma airports in July this year. We expect to see the first tranche of African Airports from the Shell asset purchase begin to pass to Vitol Aviation in December. And firm plans are in place to enter Charles de Gaulle Airport, Paris in Q1 2012 and in the Netherlands, Amsterdam Schipol Airport during the first half of 2012.
This expansion gives Vitol Aviation a global into wing business with sales of more than 2.5million tonnes per annum across 44 airports worldwide. A fast growing business, with ambitions to supply airline customers around the world. Further information on Vitol is available at www.vitol.com