Press Release

Issued by .

September 17, 2008

PremiAir's fixed wing maintenance operation will move to its new facilities at Oxford Airport during October. Its newly refurbished 20,000 sq ft hangar, representing an investment of £1 million, will be the new home of its fixed wing business and a new centre of excellence for Beechcraft MRO.  

The new facility has been refurbished to PremiAir's exact specifications with new electrics, lighting, heating and modern insulation. The facility, which will be home to some 25 to 30 personnel by year end, includes new workshops, customer reception areas, office space and dedicated car parking. PremiAir Group Managing Director David McRobert and Director Maintenance Barry Stone will also have offices at the Oxford base.

PremiAir is creating 15 new engineering jobs at Oxford. Five have recently joined the company and a new Base Maintenance Manager should be announced shortly. In addition, Bob Burley, former sales manager at Jet Engineering Technical Support in Southampton has joined the company as Manager Business Development. Before joining JETS in 2005, Bob enjoyed a 15-year career at Honeywell, latterly as Aftermarket Sales Manager. He has wide and varied experience working with airlines and business aviation operators and suppliers in airframe and engine support.

"Oxford Airport is revitalised with new ownership. The significant ongoing investment in the airport's facilities and infrastructure played a major part in our decision to go there. It's a great central location for us as a maintenance centre with a terrific catchment area for attracting both new business, as well as the number of high quality licensed aircraft engineers we will need in order to expand our services," David McRobert said.

Although the main focus at Oxford will be fixed wing maintenance, PremiAir will also be hoping to attract new executive helicopter owners who may look to them to manage their aircraft from Oxford and generate charter revenue from PremiAir's leading position in the UK executive helicopter charter market.   

PremiAir engineering update

This August, Premier welcomed the first four ab initio apprentice engineers at its Blackbushe, Surrey HQ and the company has committed to participate in the scheme for a second year. In a joint venture with Farnborough Technical College and TAG Farnborough Airport, PremiAir has committed to take on five young men and train them up to fully fledged licensed engineers over a four-year period. They are currently gaining hands-on engineering experience, spending four days at Blackbushe and one in College. ATC Lasham in Hampshire, which has run its own apprentice scheme for 11 years, has just joined the scheme and will see its first fixed wing apprentices in 2009.