Aéroports de la Côte d'Azur (ACA) appoints Air BP as sole fuel supplier at Cannes Mandelieu.

Thursday 16th January 2014

Aéroports de la Côte d'Azur (ACA), the aviation group that manages and owns the French airports Cannes Mandelieu, Saint-Tropez and Nice Cote d'Azur, announced today at this year's Schedulers and Dispatchers' conference in New Orleans, USA, the appointment of Air BP as the new sole fuel supplier to Cannes Mandelieu Airport. Following the call for tender launched by Aéroports de la Côte d'Azur, and after extensive consideration of a number of key suppliers, ACA awarded the UK headquartered fuel supplier the contract to begin providing services from 8th April 2014. Air BP is already the contracted supplier at Nice Airport.

In selecting a provider, the airport placed specific focus above all on the quality of service proposed by the suppliers and their ability to support global marketing activity. Key factors affecting the final decision to appoint Air BP were its superior level of competence in providing and maintaining the highest level of technical expertise, combined with its ability to support a detailed comprehensive marketing programme that focuses on customer growth. Both items will complement the airport's long term strategy to strengthen its position as a major player in the corporate jet business. Cannes Mandelieu Airport will brand its fuel supply as an Air BP location and will operate to the fuel supplier's rigorous standards by maximising the support from Air BP's General Aviation technical team. Under the terms of the contract, Air BP will provide Jet and Avgas fuel as well as supplying and supporting the self-service Avgas terminal.

The various customers of Cannes Mandelieu Airport will benefit from new marketing initiatives offered by Air BP which include access to its existing global customer base as well as Air BP's international advertising and promotional activity. Cannes Mandelieu's clients will also take advantage of co-promotional opportunities run in collaboration directly with Air BP as well as other relevant airports which are existing Air BP customers.

Dominique Thillaud, CEO of ACA, stated, "Air BP's offering perfectly matched our requirements. It could offer high quality levels of service and the creative capacity to work with the airport to promote its benefits to a wider customer audience. I firmly believe we will successfully develop business together. We aim to provide our customers with the best quality services and standards across all our platforms and Air BP provided a compelling offering that adds real value to our customer service levels at Cannes Mandelieu."

Miguel Moreno, GA General Manager of Air BP, said, "The General Aviation sector in France has been determined as a key growth area for Air BP so we are delighted to establish this very significant strategic partnership. It brings together two excellent brands that combined are stronger than their individual parts. Air BP has a Sterling Card network of over 12 500 customers buying fuel and we look forward to supporting Cannes Mandelieu's introduction to this customer base."

Nice Côte d'Azur airport is France's second largest airport after Paris, with 11.5 million passengers in 2013, 100 direct destinations and 53 scheduled airlines serving 33 countries. It is also the only French airport, other than Paris to offer daily flights to New York and Dubai, and the country's Number 3 airport for low-cost flights, with 4.2 million passengers and 14 airlines.

Aéroports de la Côte d'Azur manages the Nice Côte d'Azur, Cannes Mandelieu and (since late July 2013) Saint-Tropez airports. It is Europe's Number 2 business aviation hub.

www.nice.aeroport.fr