Regent Aerospace has cornered a strong market in refurbished seats, says Tim Garvin, vice-president sales. “The main driver we’re seeing is a move to leather covers and upgraded IFE,” he says. “We specialise in bringing a second life to seats. We take seats from old commuter airlines and redesign them. We have recently placed revamped secondhand products on to four VVIP 767s and an Airbus Corporate Jet.”
Re-using seats saves time as well as money: “A new seat costs three times the price of one of these and takes longer to create. The lead-time for many OEMs is a year, whereas we can do this in ten to twelve weeks,” Garvin says.
Regent works with completions houses such as Jet Aviation, as well as MROs all over the world. It also has a great deal of commercial work. “The first thing most airlines do is to put in new seats, or take seats out and redesign them to give a modern feel to the interior. This means that the cabins look as good as new at one third of the price,” Garvin says.
Garvin reckons that the trend is for operators to use leather rather than fabric as it is easier to maintain and has a more contemporary feel. Airlines are also increasingly looking for state-of-the-art IFE to please their customers. Regent has a strong presence in Asia and in 2005 opened facilities in Busan, South Korea and Beijing to support new customer requirements in the region.
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Source: Flight Daily News
