Premiere Handling celebrates 10th anniversary at Manchester Airport

In the last few months the company has won business from three new customers, resulting in the creation of 50 new jobs in all departments.

Premiere Handling is now working for Aurigny that flies between Manchester and Guernsey in the Channel Islands.

The airline is the main carrier for the Channel Islands, an important destination for business and holiday flyers.

Premiere has also won a contract with Loganair, Scotland’s national airline that operates services from Manchester to Bergen, Inverness, and Norwich, Sumburgh and Stornaway.

Completing the trio of new airlines is Titan Airways that operates flights to Zadar in Croatia with their Boeing 737 aircraft.

Premiere Handling began Operations in 2008 based at Manchester.

“There could not be a better way to celebrate our 10th anniversary at Manchester than to win three new airline customers,” said Julian van Gelder, Managing Director of Premiere Handling.

“This new work marks a major expansion for the business and has enabled us to create a significant number of new jobs.

“We are the only independent ground handling business in Manchester and work with aircraft ranging from the Antonov AN 225, the largest aircraft in the world, to the smallest.

“The type of flights vary and include VIP services, standard scheduled and chartered passenger services, moving urgent parts for local car manufacturers and also general cargo.

“Our business operates 24 hours a day and our services can be tailored to cater for airlines of all types and sizes with differing requirements.”

Formed by Julian van Gelder in July 2008, Premiere Handling also supports some of the bigger handling agents at Manchester and provides services to operators that fly into Manchester who do not have handling agent contracts.

“It’s all about offering personal service to ensure that the client wants to use you again,” added Julian.

“The key to our job is flexibility.

“We are a 24/7 operation, 365 days a year and never say no to a request. The diverse nature of the work keeps it really interesting.”

Premiere is also involved in saving lives through its work with medical cases - such as when ill or injured holidaymakers are repatriated to Manchester from abroad and are flown back by air ambulance.

There is also a regular requirement for vital short notice charters carrying transplant organs and surgeons too, often in the early hours. Small aircraft move organs and specialist medical teams between major cities in the UK, in which Premiere play a vital part.

Manchester Airport is the largest in the UK outside London, handling almost 30 million passengers and more than 200,000 aircraft movements each year.

Premiere Handling is also involved in partnership with Italian group Azzurra / GH Italia at Birmingham Airport.

The operation in Birmingham started in 2017 and has created over 40 jobs.