UK premium airliner seating start-up Unum is close to securing a launch customer, understood to be an Airbus A330 operator, as it prepares to begin production from its new factory early next year.
The company, which unveiled its headquarters and assembly plant in Crawley near London on 29 November, expects to be delivering its business class seats from September 2025.
Unum was founded in 2020 by Chris Brady, the former chief executive of economy seat manufacturer Acro. He says that Unum is “close to an LOI [letter of intent] with our first airline” and expects to achieve certification for its Unum One reverse herringbone seat next year. The company will also offer a staggered forward-facing variant called the Unum Two.
Brady believes the company can break into a segment dominated by the likes of Collins Aerospace, Safran, Stelia, and Thompson by focusing on a single design, smaller orders from secondary airlines, and ensuring on-time shipments at a time when rivals have struggled with capacity and delivery schedules.
“Next year will be a big year for us as we enter production,” he says.
Unum – which will outsource most of its manufacturing to a largely UK-based supply chain, leaving it to concentrate on design, procurement, and final assembly in Crawley – plans to be producing around 80 seats a month, the equivalent of three shipsets, by 2026.
This volume, says Brady, will generate annual revenues of around $50 million.
“Each of our seats will be like a perfect prototype. We never need to be good at rate production,” he adds.
“On-time delivery will be our priority rather than squeezing out every dollar of profit possible [by switching to suppliers in low-labour-cost countries]. That’s the only way we can make this work,” he says. “As long as this generation of management is in charge, that won’t change.”
The company expects to employ around 100 people, including 24 on the shop floor, by the time it reaches full production.
