Satair’s UK operation is growing. A multi-million pound investment has resulted in the opening of a brand new facility close to London’s Heathrow Airport. The new facility, at Space Waye, North Feltham Trading Estate, became fully operational in March and has six times the area and 11 times the cubic capacity of the previous Heston, Middlesex, facility which Satair had occupied for almost 30 years.
Currently Satair says it services about 7,500 aircraft batteries a year making it one of the world’s largest commercial aircraft battery servicing operations. The company says it prides itself on quick lead times, quality, safety and a pedigree of more than 50 years.
Approximately 180 customers, ranging from international scheduled airlines, charter carriers, large low-cost airlines and regional airlines to MRO companies, helicopter owners, business jets and private aircraft owners have their batteries serviced by Satair UK.
The business is also a large aviation battery distributor, representing the top five battery manufacturers – ACME, Concorde, Hawker Enersys, Marathon Norco Aerospace and Saft.
The increased warehousing and workshop space at Space Waye gives opportunities for expanded capabilities according to Jon Ravenhall, managing director Satair UK and head of Operations Repair Europe. “It is also our intention to widen the scope of our offering to the market. Being a key part of the Operations Repair Group within Satair, we plan to offer electrically-based product repairs, particularly for Airbus proprietary parts,” Ravenhall says. “We are working very closely with our Satair and Airbus colleagues in determining a wide range of stocked parts all of which have significant UK demand and we have a development plan for this year and 2019 for both warehousing and repairs.”
The 14 staff previously employed at Heston made contributions to the design, layout and functionality of the new facility and all have moved to Space Waye. An additional five new employees have been recruited both for warehousing and repair operations and the business has started a battery technician apprenticeship scheme through the Way2Work initiative with the first apprentice now engaged.
The Space Waye facility also has expanded office space and being so close to Heathrow can be used as a convenient meeting location for Airbus, Satair, customers and suppliers.