While some segments of the aviation industry are stagnant, BBA Aviation’s Ontic unit is experiencing “unprecedented growth,” according to director of business development Robert Sadler. “We continue to see the high level of growth that we have seen over last couple of years,” he said.
Here at EBACE 2015, Ontic (Stand N114) is promoting its capabilities to manufacture parts for legacy aircraft, either under license to the airframe OEM or through acquisition of entire product lines. Ontic has three repair and manufacturing locations, in Chatsworth, California, Cheltenham, UK and Singapore. EBACE offers Ontic an opportunity not only to meet with customers but also with OEM partners such as Gulfstream, Bombardier (including Learjet), Embraer and Textron Aviation. These companies have all entered licensing agreements with Ontic so it can manufacture parts for older models of their aircraft, to help legacy aircraft continue flying safely.
“One of our goals has been to expand our OEM base,” Sadler continued. In April Ontic signed its first licensing agreement with Thales Avionics to support landscape and survey cameras for commercial and military aircraft. The program involves MRO services for those products and should be running by June 1, he added.
In January, Ontic received FAA Part 145 approval for its Cheltenham facility. “That helps our service turnarounds much quicker,” Sadler said. Cheltenham also holds EASA 145 approval, and its specialty is manufacturing and repairs for fuel measurement and gauging system parts for some Airbus, Boeing, Fokker and BAE aircraft. In the business aviation market, Ontic supports Gulfstream G450s and G550s, Bombardier Challengers, Citations and others.
While Ontic stocks parts at all three of its facilities, the company recently signed partnership agreements with distributors Apsco and Aviall to improve access globally.
About a third of Ontic’s business is electronics and avionics products. “We’re looking at several opportunities in that range as well as electromechanical parts and legacy engine licenses,” he said. One such license will be for the Rolls-Royce Dart turboprop engine. “We support BBA’s engine repair and overhaul [business] in that parts can come from Ontic on some of these projects,” he explained. “That definitely ties into what they’re doing.” o