Liverpool-based Ravenair is currently entering an ambitious expansion phase. It has recently acquired a PA34 Seneca from Mann Aviation, and a PN68 Partenavia which will be used for charter operations. In December, a Beech 90 will become the first managed aircraft in the company’s fleet. And further down the line, it will build second and third hangar units at Liverpool Airport’s Business Aviation Centre.

Said operations director Wayne Barrett: “We’ve already got a Seneca in the fleet and spare parts are more readily available for this type of aircraft. Normally a lot of the trips that we fly allow us to carry one or two passengers or a box or an organ for transplant. The aircraft burns less fuel than the Aztec and it’s registered below the weight threshold for Eurocontrol charges.

“We didn’t really consider purchasing any other aircraft, because we already have the availability on the AOC to operate the PA34 and the PN68. It’s obviously more cost-effective for us for crew training purposes and for the cost of the AOC to operate similar types,” Barrett continued. “With regard to maintenance, we hold a stock of spares of our own, so pooling those on similar aircraft types makes sense.”\r

The aircraft is quiet inside and offers a club seating arrangement. “I think it will expand our customer base. We currently have people coming back to us who have in the past moved up to other types of aircraft and they’re coming back to the smaller aircraft,” he said. “Although it takes slightly longer than a jet or turboprop would on short sectors around the UK, it is more cost-effective.”

Ravenair has a lot of local customers from the Liverpool area, ranging from people with businesses through to private individuals. “However,” said Barrett, “a lot of our work is for airlines and for the NHS. We provide human organ and medical team transfers across the UK and into Ireland.”

Ravenair will also be taking on a Beech 90 with approved stretcher fit in the near future. Barrett said: “The aircraft is currently being resprayed in Oxford and it’s due to arrive here in December. There will be some crew training that needs to go on and we hope to have it operational on the AOC by mid to late January.”

With regard to adding yet more aircraft in the future, he said that they are always on the lookout. “We’d obviously prefer, rather than an outright purchase, to manage people’s aircraft and use them on the AOC. But certainly we are in an expansion phase and hopefully that will continue.

“We do own all of our current aircraft, but this is soon to be with the exception of the Beech King Air that will be coming on line,” he said. “We are looking to move more into management.”

Liverpool is an ideal location, according to the company, because of its motorway connections throughout northern England and North Wales. “The main business in these areas is industrial, but you’ve also got businesses such as the football clubs, which play an important part in what we do here,” he said.

“Mainly from our handling side, we get a lot of visiting aircraft into Liverpool and we handle a lot of that traffic. That ranges from people coming in on Cherokees to owners of football clubs arriving in BBJs.

The company is not personally responsible for flying any of the football teams itself. Instead, it is in charge of the handling, especially the ground handling, of the various airlines who do transport the teams.

The new Partenavia, which Ravenair has just purchased, is on the German register at the moment and is currently being converted on to the British register.

Said Barrett: “That will supplement our other Partenavia on the survey work, which is an expanding area of our business. We do it for several oil companies and also for several wildlife and governmental departments.

“We do have numerous exemptions to operate the aircraft outside the normal limits put down in the air navigation order,” he said.

The company also provides both grades of aviation fuel at Liverpool and runs the Shell into-plane fuelling operation at Liverpool Airport on behalf of Shell Aviation UK on a management basis.

“There isn’t a lot of competition in this area. We are really the only AOC holder operating from Liverpool at the turboprop and piston end of the market,” he said. “The other AOC holder that is currently on site is a jet operation with two Citations and they’re actually based with us here. We offer them office space and all their handling facilities. So we really complement each other.”

Barrett believes that the UK charter market is quite buoyant at the moment. “We see it from both sides, both from ourselves and from the handling side. Certainly since we’ve been offering facilities at Liverpool, there seems to be a lot more traffic being enticed to the area,” he said.

“We’re still in the project management phase of building our second hangar unit, which will be an additional 18,000 square feet, on the side of our existing unit, at the Business Aviation Centre at Liverpool. We also have a third unit on which we’re just finalising the lease with the airport authority. This will be to build another 18,000 square feet unit on the back of that.

“So we will have a total of three units and that will obviously increase our facilities both on an engineering front and for visiting aircraft or people wishing to base their aircraft at Liverpool.”

Ravenair also operates it own JAR-145 engineering department maintaining both inhouse and third party aircraft of types ranging from piston-singles to Citation variants.