Piper AG, a long-standing Piper aircraft dealer, is expanding its operations to include sales, parts and services for the UK, Spain and related territories. Its existing base of operations already encompasses Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Hungary.

The company succeeds Senate Aviation, the Bournemouth-based company that became the UK, Ireland and Spanish distributorship of New Piper Aircraft in 2004.

The transition from existing operations by Senate Aviation is effective immediately, and follows several weeks of negotiations with Piper AG and the consent of Piper Aircraft.

The company has established Piper Parts and Sales UK as its wholly owned parts and sales distributor for its expanded operations, which will be based at Bournemouth International Airport in Christchurch, UK.

President and ceo of New Piper Aircraft James Bass said: "The UK and Spain are vital markets for New Piper and we are particularly pleased to see a company of Piper AG's calibre on hand to service the needs of our large and loyal customer base in those countries."

Wilfried Otto, chairman of Piper AG, said that Piper UK has significant plans for the future. "This transition and expansion is just the beginning of a new commitment to our customers. Our immediate goal is to relocate Piper UK to another airport in the UK, where we will build a new facility with hangar space for aircraft maintenance, warehouse space for spare parts and office space for marketing activities. We have already started negotiating with 10 potential UK airports and expect to relocate by July of this year."

Piper UK will employ an eight-person team at its Bournemouth facility and hopes to increase parts inventory value by #300,000. At least three Piper aircraft will be based there for demonstration flights. The company also announced plans to establish additional Piper sales and service centres by the end of June.