Grafair at Stockholm Bromma has been a regular fixture in the upper reaches of the Business Air News FBO Survey, and was the outright winner in 2014. Well-known for its pet parrot, this year the team has achieved third place, and CEO and FBO manager Johan Emmoth says that customers know what to expect when they turn up at the Swedish facility.

“There are no surprises,” he tells Business Air News. “Customers know that if they come to Stockholm and Grafair, the whole thing is going to work. If it is the middle of the winter and they ask for a hangar, we can most likely offer them one ad hoc.

“You can never be satisfied; you have to really work hard all the time. You have to constantly update your equipment, including GPUs, de-icers and Lektros in order to give people that service if they need it. You need to renew all the trucks, the lavatory carts, everything.”

Grafair has spent many months constructing a huge hangar in Bromma, which has been up and running since December. It also offers Grafair Jet Center – Arlanda as a full function alternative to Bromma when closed at night time. “People can see that we put a lot of love and effort into making things better,” Emmoth continues. “We have been seeing more and larger aircraft, so in order to continue to give the same service, we needed to have another hangar. With increased movements comes a need for more educated personnel too.

“If someone comes to us now or ten years ago, their experience would be the same. Of course things have become more digitalised, programmes and so on have been updated in order to be more efficient, but out on the ramp, or at the front desk, when it comes to the hard work, it is the same as always.”

The current snow in Sweden calls for the correct equipment. “If you don’t complete service intervals and maintain equipment as a priority, it’s going to show in your service,” he explains. “Since the beginning we have always been very particular with maintaining everything regularly and frequently.

“Last year was not so good for us in the survey, although we were in the top 20 still. I’m really happy that we have stepped up again.”

The completed hangar comes with more parking spaces, and a new tram link to Bromma from Stockholm that stops right outside the door is also in the pipeline. “Most people will go in a taxi or their own car, but in the near future they will be able to take the tram from the city centre.

“As for us, we will continue to keep up a good spirit. You can’t slack,” Emmoth concludes.