UK aviation services company is seeking to employ qualified fixed-wing engineers for its new base at Oxford airport. Heading the recruitment drive is engineering director Barry Stone. Who is he looking for?
How did you get interested in aviation?
At school I had two career tracks, engineering and teaching sports. The opportunity came up to join British Aircraft Corporation as an apprentice and I took my first step into aviation. During my career in aviation I have covered the full spectrum of the industry, finding new challenges and opportunities to put my skills and experience into practice.
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How have you progressed up the career ladder?
I have been extremely fortunate to be in the right place at the right time at many stages of my career. By taking the opportunities that came my way I've been able to secure positions at various companies where I have been leading the management team and taking businesses through good and not so good times. I have been at a senior management position for some 25 years of my career, but still find myself encountering new situations in an industry that is ever changing.
What does your job involve?
I joined PremiAir Aviation 18 months ago to head the maintenance and engineering company, PAE, with a mandate to grow the business and improve the profitability. Given my past experience I was able to hit the floor running and quickly make some changes to improve the business functions. I was fortunate to inherit a good management team to which I added a few new members. Collectively we have set about overhauling the processes while growing both the rotary-wing and fixed-wing business. I keep up to speed on the everyday operations of PAE and champion a number of changes we are making to our processes and procedures. This also involves talking to our customers and negotiating renewals to their contracts.
I talk to new customers, our prime OEMs (Hawker Beechcraft, Sikorsky, Bell, Eurocopter, P&WC, Rolls-Royce) suppliers and associated business contacts. I am also involved with strategic planning for PAE and the other PremiAir Aviation companies.
What made PremiAir choose Oxford and what will your operation do there?
We recognised in early 2007 that we needed to move our fixed-wing business if we wanted it to grow. Our old home, Blackbushe airfield, has certain operating limitations that would prevent us developing our fixed-wing business and at the same time we were space constrained. After careful evaluation of the sites around London we found Oxford offered us the best solution and we are moving the fixed-wing maintenance business there this month. Hangar 1 at Oxford will allow us to continue our support of the Beechcraft aircraft (Premier I, KingAir, Baron and Bonanza) and win additional business in this sector.
You are looking for new engineers to join you at Oxford. What sort of qualifications should they have?
We are already advertising for experienced licensed engineers who can work on the aircraft types we maintain. Our intention is to recruit from the Oxford area, but initially train them to our systems and aircraft types before the move. In the next few weeks we plan to add up to 10 engineers to our labour pool and, once we have settled down at Oxford, to add more staff in line with our expected growth.
What sort of challenges and prospects do they face?
Initially the challenges will be associated with the move to Oxford and establishing the business in the refurbished hangar. During this transition period we need to maintain service and quality levels for our existing customers and quickly start generating new business to maximise our increased capacity.
Source: Flight International
