Sister Airport – Teterboro, USA
Teterboro and Biggin Hill sign memorandum to establish sister airport relationship
Ralph Tragale (left) and Andrew Walters at the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding at Teterboro Airport today.
Teterboro Airport, New Jersey, USA, 13th August 2013. An innovative transatlantic aviation initiative is established today between Teterboro Airport in the metropolitan area of New York and London’s Biggin Hill Airport aimed at supporting and developing business air transportation between the financial and commercial centres of the City of London and New York.
Enshrined in a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed in New York today by Ralph Tragale, Assistant Director of the Aviation Department of the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey and Andrew Walters, Chairman, Biggin Hill Airport Ltd, the MOU provides the platform for international cooperation and customer service geared exclusively to business and corporate aviation.
New York Teterboro and London Biggin Hill Airport operate similarly as international gateway airports to their respective cities, both located conveniently within 12 miles of the city centres. Both airports have multi-choice FBO’s and MRO’s and a full range of supporting technical services.
The MOU encourages participation in mutual assistance and cooperation by both parties, specifically within the key areas of customer service, facilitation, communication, security and safety. It will also stimulate cooperation and friendship between the management and staff of the two international airports.
Andrew Walters says that Biggin Hill Airport warmly welcomes this initiative.
“We look forward to working together and exchanging ideas about the successful development of this specialist business aviation sector. The USA is recognised as a market leader in the sector and Teterboro is the leading airport, so there is much for us to learn – such as minimising disturbance to the local community whilst also meeting the growing needs of the customer” he says.
“The FAA and NYPA have developed a successful Reliever airport strategy for their smaller airports, making them attractive to operators to use as an alternative to the busy hub airports, thereby reducing pressure and demand for non-scheduled flights at the bigger airports. This strategy can lead directly to an improvement in the resilience of the big, busy airports” says Mr Walters.
“We believe that the approach taken by the NYPA in operating their network of airports as an overall system and providing better choices for operators is a very interesting model for the problems now faced by London in meeting its capacity challenge. We have made our representations to the Airports Commission in London that London Biggin Hill should be considered as a Reliever airport, specialising in the Business and General Aviation sector – just as Teterboro does today” Mr Walters says.
“The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has selected Biggin Hill and the area around the airport as a Strategic Outer London Development Centre. As a result, we are now moving ahead with plans to attract more aviation industry to our land in SE London – as has already been achieved at Teterboro” he says.
“This new Sister agreement marks the beginning of an association that will be good for our respective staff, for our respective customers and for our respective communities. It will link two World Cities, assist trade and innovation and it will build on the experience learned here at Teterboro that can be implemented in London and, in the course of time, at other World Cities” Mr Walters predicted.
Bill Baroni, Deputy Executive Director of the Port Authority says “New Jersey’s Teterboro Airport has much to offer and gain from this special sister airport relationship with London’s Biggin Hill. Teterboro and Biggin Hill are leaders in private aircraft operations and the agency looks forward to broadening its relationship with London’s aviation, commercial and financial entities, which hopefully will foster learning and economic growth both here and abroad”