A planning application has been made in the UK for a new hangar at Fairoaks Airport for Flexjet Vertical Lift. The US-based jet operator is looking to expand their UK and European helicopter offering along the lines of their US operation. While the basis of the company is fixed-wing jets, they made a strategic move into rotary-wing support with the US acquisition of Associated Aircraft Group (AAG) in February 2021, and three months later adding UK-based helicopter operator Halo Aviation.

Plans have very recently been submitted to Surrey Heath Council for a hangar at Fairoaks Airport, with one of the graphics clearly branded with the Flexjet logo. The proposal is for a temporary hangar structure to provide 913m² of hangarage for up to four Sikorsky S76 size helicopters, along with three helipads totaling 901m² and offices of 62m²

Documentation from the public access planning application shows graphics created by Fabspace, an Austrian-based company specialising in modular-construction temporary and mobile hangar systems.

Flexjet have one Sikorsky S76C+ in the UK at present and are planning on having up to three.  The current Halo Aviation base at Dunsfold Aerodrome will be retained for the time being, despite the location having been subject for some years to an outline planning permission for closure and the construction of 1,800 homes.  The new Fairoaks base will be focused on S76 operations, and may see one or two AW109s being moved from Dunsfold too.

The planning process falls under the “General Permitted Development” rulings of the Town and Country Planning order 2015, and construction work on the new hangar at Fairoaks is due to commence in late August and should take 8-12 weeks according to documents submitted as part of the application.