UK-based Ontic Invests $15 Million to Open Aviation Component Repair Center

en.Wedoany.com Reported - UK aviation component manufacturing and repair company Ontic has officially opened an aviation component repair center in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, with a project investment of $15 million and a facility area of approximately 6,689 square meters. The center will consolidate the company's repair operations previously distributed across two sites in Bishop's Cleeve and Staverton, concentrating approximately 200 engineering, repair, and technical support personnel. The new facility is already operational, and the transfer of related repair product lines and personnel is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2027.

This investment includes $11 million for plant renovation and $4 million for test equipment upgrades and additions. The new center was converted from an existing commercial building and features dedicated areas for aviation component inspection, repair, and technical support. Ontic has chosen to add some specialized test equipment rather than relocate it entirely, allowing the original manufacturing site to retain relevant testing capabilities while establishing independent repair conditions at the new center. After the repair operations are relocated, the space freed up at the original production facility will be used to introduce new aviation component product lines.

The repair center is equipped with pneumatic and hydraulic system repair facilities, an avionics repair workshop, an ISO Class 7 cleanroom, non-destructive testing equipment, a machining workshop, and a darkroom, and has temperature, vibration, and altitude environmental stress screening capabilities. The center completed relevant audits in December 2025 and obtained Part 145 repair approvals from the UK Civil Aviation Authority and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency, as well as relevant approvals recognized by the US Federal Aviation Administration under the UK regulatory framework. The application for repair certification from the Civil Aviation Administration of China is still in progress, and the company had previously planned to obtain the corresponding approval in the fourth quarter of 2026.

Ontic has established a round-the-clock aircraft on-ground (AOG) fault support team at the new center, hiring 6 new employees responsible for emergency repair coordination, component exchange, and technical support for global aviation customers, handling approximately 60 related requests per day. Its spare parts inventory is deployed in London, Miami in the United States, and Singapore, providing logistics support for repair services across Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Americas, and the Asia-Pacific region. The center will also conduct technical training across different product lines by centralizing repair personnel and testing equipment.

After the relocation of existing equipment and personnel to the new center is completed, approximately 1,670 to 1,860 square meters of available space is expected to remain, with a mezzanine area available for future expansion. After Ontic completed a similar business consolidation at its Miramar repair center in Florida, USA, the repair turnaround time for some Boeing aircraft vacuum blowers was reduced from approximately 45 days to 15 days. The company plans to further separate its UK repair operations from its manufacturing operations, but has not yet published actual repair turnaround time data following the commissioning of the Tewkesbury center.