ERRAF: Environmental Recovery and Reinvestment in Aviation Facilities
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CIAO: Convergence International Airports Organisation Limited
ERRAF Limited is an Anglo-American JV holding company and the key shareholder in CIAO, which is a British aviation development company. These organisations specialise in the ownership and operation of next-generation regional airports.
We do not see an airport simply as an airport. It is not only a business driver for the local community promoting commercial traffic, but it also serves as part of a region’s leisure offering. Therefore it has to provide a wide range of different customers with a high quality, consistent, safe and reliable service that encompasses current best practice with forward thinking and adoption of new technologies within a rapidly changing economic, regulatory, social and environmental framework.
Our goal is to develop assets that provide a simple, safe, environmentally efficient, fast and enjoyable travel experience plus a wide range of services to both the business and local community. This can only be achieved in conjunction and consultation with all local stakeholders, fully comprehending their aspirations as well as being mindful of their sensitivities. In addition the airport must look beyond its local role to its global responsibilities as a net carbon producer.
Recognising that the airport industry was entering a period of significant change through such factors as the stricter controls of carbon emissions, the emergence and pre-eminence and maturing of low cost carriers, increased security requirements and customers demanding higher levels of service and convenience, CIAO was established in December 2003. ERRAF was established in October 2004. Their objective is to build up a portfolio of demonstrably profitable domestic and overseas, next-generation regional airports that embody the companies’ ethos and fully support the communities that they serve.
This requires an approach that encompasses every aspect of operation, ranging from different types of aviation traffic, cost-effective flexible facilities, surrounding development of land and buildings, the formation of strategic partnerships as well as the wide ranging use of technology to provide better operating solutions. To achieve this change, the companies look at all aspects of airport development and operation to produce a properly balanced asset that provides a number of robust income streams, and have entered into partnerships with leading technology providers and manufacturers.
CIAO was formed from a group of professionals who collectively have experience of owning, developing, operating and managing physical assets and capital projects at over 60 airports worldwide, with annual throughputs ranging from 500,000 to over 10,000,000 passengers.
Our initial venture was Coventry Airport where CIAO assumed the management in January 2006 and initiated an extensive development plan to achieve the transformation outlined above.
To achieve the goal of sustainable aviation, airlines and airports must reduce their carbon emissions. There is a considerable amount of activity in this field at present. For instance:
- In October 2008, European Union justice ministers confirmed that from 2012, all airlines operating flights, both within the EU and external flights taking off or landing in the EU, will participate in the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme; it is expected that the impact of emissions trading on aviation will be dramatic;
- In June 2009, ACI Europe launched their Airport Carbon Accreditation scheme, with the aim of encouraging airports to reduce their carbon emissions and achieve carbon neutral airports by 2012;
- Biofuels are produced from renewable biological resources such as plant material. Second-generation biofuels use a sustainable resource to produce a fuel that can replace traditional jet fuel, while not consuming valuable food, land and water resources. Biofuels for aviation use have been tested, are being further developed and are expected to be available in commercial volumes in 2012.
ERRAF and CIAO are knowledgeable in each of these areas and are well placed to provide services to ensure that the goal of sustainable aviation is achieved.
Looking forward, ERRAF and CIAO are also actively targeting domestic and international regional airport projects. These projects range from management contracts on existing airports, through military to civilian conversions to complete greenfield new-build airports.
ERRAF and CIAO have the vision, the people, the experience, the expertise and the partnerships to be able to deliver and operate high quality regional airports across Europe and beyond. We set out to challenge and change the perception of conventional airports by creating a memorable experience for the travelling public.
