Business flights to and from London Oxford Airport increased 12 per cent in the past year, as bosses continued their mission to replace lost pilot training flights.

Ten years ago there were 158,000 plane movements a year to and from the airport, while last year there were just 36,660 — mainly because pilot training has moved to ground-level simulators.

To replace the income, the airport is trying to encourage more business flights, and is now handling about 20 business aircraft movements a day.

It launched a new business service called oxfordjet <<ok>>and this year hopes to see 6,000 visiting business flights, compared to 5,000 last year.

Managing director Steve Jones said the airport was now handling an average 20 business aircraft movements a day. “This will equate to approximately 6,000 business aviation movements a year, assuming continuation of the current rate — an achievement we are very pleased with.

"We are very proud of our achievements at London Oxford Airport since the formal opening of oxfordjet in July 2008.

"Our oxfordjet has continued to grow steadily despite the global economic downturn and bucked all trends with jet aircraft movements by visiting jets climbing significantly.

"This reflects the continued expansion of brand and product awareness of oxfordjet as a leading gateway for the Thames Valley and West London region. We confidently expect to see more resident aircraft activity, with our home-based fleet of business aircraft continuing to grow.”

Jet fuel sales during the period April 2009 to March 2010 were up 47 per cent.

The first quarter of 2010 brought a 25 per cent rise in business aviation traffic, compared with the first quarter of 2009.

Oxford Airport remained open every day during the two weeks of snow and ice in early January, unlike many similar-sized airports in the UK.

To accommodate business expansion, a further three-bay hangar will be built this year, with a £750,000 upgrade of communications equipment.

From May 2, Enterprise Rent-a-Car will provide car hire services between seven days a week at the airport.

Swiss regional carrier Baboo will resume its weekly Saturday flights to Geneva in December for the winter 2010 ski season.

Weekly services to Jersey restart in May and onward connections to Guernsey are also being promoted.

The Jersey flights are operating an extended season, from May to September this year, in response to last year’s demand and early strong forward bookings for 2010.

The Oxford Airport flights were the best selling of the company’s 22 UK airports now serving Jersey.

The airport is owned by the Reuben Brothers, who are fifth in the Sunday Times Rich List with a fortune of more than £5.5bn.