We have to admit we fell in love at first sight with the brand-new private aviation terminal at Olbia Costa Smeralda Airport. This futuristic yet wonderfully cocoon-like structure was inaugurated on June 27th 2009. But what an impression it makes: Inside the eye is drawn along sleek, elegant lines, while beautifully designed lighting really does create an incredible feeling of intimacy. A very unusual sensation in any airport but particularly one through which more than 40,000 passengers pass each year.
Most of the aforementioned travellers are, of course, bound for the Costa Smeralda, the now legendary tourist haven whose emerald seas are renowned as the most beautiful in the world. It is impossible to say exactly how many of these passengers go to Porto Cervo, and to the other famous locations on the Northern Sardinian coast, for business and how many for leisure. The reason is simple: it has, as elsewhere, been fashionable for quite some time now to mix the two on the Costa, creating business opportunities in this holiday location, and moving business and public relations meetings to the sea. It was very much a logical next step that allowed all concerned to take advantage of the great weather and superb infrastructure and facilities offered by an area that has been catering to the needs of large numbers of discerning celebrity guests for almost 50 years now.
Different by design
This stunning stretch of island coastline offers an impressive array of services and facilities of excellent designed specifically to cater to the needs of international VIPs – making it the perfect place to take the work out of organising top level business meetings, in other words.
Eccelsa Aviation, a firm belonging entirely to Geasar (the Olbia Airport Management Company, itself part of Meridiana Group) which manages the private aviation terminal, really comes into its own in this context too. First and foremost, it offers an exceptional combination of absolute professionalism and that extra touch of charm one would expect of an airport serving one of Europe’s most prestigious tourist destinations.
Added to this is the fact that the new terminal Eccelsa manages is home to about 4,500 square metres including retail space with Top brands like Loro Piana, luxury eye wear, De Grisogono fine jewelleries, Ermegildo Zegna, Star Dust, a quality restaurant and a store with a great selection of Sardinian Produce, fine Italian and French wines and a conference room. Eccelsa has established important partnership with Audi, therefore, offering to the Passengers with comfort of the top car maker for their transfers and with Rolex which is present inside the Eccelsa terminal displaying their Masterpieces.
All the trimmings
The designer all-glass and local yellow San Giacomo Granit stone terminal also boasts one feature that makes it unique in Europe: a special airplanes canopy thanks to which passengers can enter and leave the terminal directly from their aircraft in total comfort.
Over the last seven years, it has basically doubled the number of aircraft movements it deals with from about 8,000 to 15,000 per year. More private 747s, Airbus 340 as well as Boeings 767s, 777s and other Very Large Aircraft tailored into executive configuration than ever are landing at Olbia too and their numbers continue to grow. In the final analysis, however, absolute discretion, comfort, safety and security are the qualities most appreciated by the clients of the Eccelsa Aviation Team. “Whether the final destination is a beautiful villa, a five stars hotel, the latest super yacht rather than the participation to one of the many events and regatta organised by the exclusive Yacht Club Costa Smeralda, Eccelsa Aviation assures the arrival and departures of all passengers with personalised quality service for all of our Customers. At Eccelsa we have a strong Team, focus on providing the best quality service and we all know that we will never have a second chance to give the first impression” explains Eccelsa’s general manager Francesco Cossu. The new Marina di Olbia is only three kilometres away from the Eccelsa Terminal offering the unique opportunity to all Passengers, in the Mediterranean scenarios, to be on board their Yachts four minutes after they have landed and relaxed to begin their holidays.
It is also a very short hop from the Eccelsa terminal to a helipad-sporting megayacht riding at anchor off the Costa. Such is the convenience and speed of the transfer in fact, that many passengers opt to make the journey to their hotels or villas by helicopter and simply send on their luggage on by car. Thanks to the organisational skills of the Eccelsa staff, the whole process runs like clockwork.
The 40-strong team is not only high experienced but also adept at meeting even the most demanding requests. The air terminal’s own concierge service will organise everything and anything for passengers, including horse treks, aircraft and helicopter charters as well as renting a Ferrari, an Aston Martin or a Bentley or even arrange both bareboat and skippered yacht charters. The Terminal’s based Cortesa in-flight catering service alone offers a list of over 100 menu choices ranging from simple sandwiches to lobster with a carefully selected quality Italian and Sardinian foods and wines. The Meridiana Maintenance Team, offers first class technical assistance, while there are also integrated services for flight personnel and air taxi companies.
Eccelsa Aviation is one of the reasons why people who like holidaying in truly special locations choose to come to Sardinia. Being on business helps ensure that those niggling feelings of boredom that tend to creep into minds all to used to constant work, are kept at bay for the duration, while the holiday atmosphere itself really does help build business relationships by bringing subjects, emotions and content into play that would simply feel out of place in a traditional office setting. To cut a long story short, although business and holidays have may once seemed like two completely separate worlds that would never meet, they have now become two parts of the same whole, quite naturally, on the Costa Smeralda.
