Satair Signs Support Agreement with UTC

Satair Group and UTC Aerospace Systems (Chalet CD07) have signed a global distribution agreement covering electric systems, environmental- and engine-control systems as well as lighting systems. It will cover “mid- and small-sized customers.”

Airbus subsidiary Satair will “assume responsibility for aftermarket sales support and distribution of selected products and systems,” the company revealed in a press release here at the Singapore Airshow.

Satair CEO Mikkel Bardram said, “We are very happy to significantly expand our already good and existing business relationship with UTC Aerospace Systems. It fits with Satair Group’s strategy to continually widen our product range and offer more services to our customers and business partners. Our expectation is to grow the sales of these product lines whilst improving customer satisfaction.” Satair Group’s vision is to become the global market leader in the civil aircraft parts management business in 2017.

Ajay Agrawal, UTC Aerospace Systems v-p of aftermarket, said, “We recognize the needs of our medium and small customers, and we are pleased to work with Satair Group to provide these customer accounts with a unique distribution solution to best meet their needs for quality spare parts support.”

Bardram said that there is growing demand from end users, be they airlines or MROs –and most notably from Asia Pacific airlines–for integrated material services (IMS), where companies like Satair group can take on the whole task of managing an airline’s supply chain, stick ordering, warehousing, repairs, inventory management, invoicing, logistics, and more.

“All our strategic initiatives address key trends in today’s aerospace aftermarket – trends that are becoming clearer,” said Badram. “This market is ‘professionalizing’ and companies on both the supplier and end-user side are looking critically at the way they do business. This gives all of us opportunities to see new ways of working together.

“With end-users there is much interest in consolidating consumption with a few suppliers in the market. This plays strongly to the strengths we have in [IMS], together with the extensions in our product range through standard parts and used parts. With first contracts on IMS secured we will move forward and ramp up the business.”

Satair (Stand H39) also announced a new distribution business with Eaton Aerospace and Dedienne Aerospace at last year’s Paris Air Show. It also revealed that Eltra Electronics of Singapore, which Airbus had also acquired, merged into Satair as part of an initiative to “consolidate activities in the Asia Pacific market,” according to the managing director of Satair Group in Singapore, René Frandsen. He added that Eltra Aeronautics would further strengthen Satair Group as a material aftermarket integrator, connecting the dots between customers and OEM business partners.

Steen Karsbo, v-p business development for Satair Group, commented at the time: “Satair Group can leverage on Eltra Aeronautics’ intimate knowledge of the Asia Pacific market as well as their relationships with OEM business partners to further develop the distribution business in the region.

Satair Group is headquartered in Copenhagen and Hamburg and has warehousing and service centers in Europe, North America, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and China. In 2014, Eltra Electronics Singapore had a turnover of $22.5 million and was previously a subsidiary of Eltra Group. It was established in July 1998 in Singapore with sales support offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hyderabad (India).