Excellence Aviation to offer Bombardier Challenger maintenance at London Oxford Airport with newly won EASA 145 type approval

Monday 2nd November 2015

Excellence Aviation is celebrating its opening at London Oxford Airport having obtained EASA 145 approval to commence maintenance work there on European-registered Bombardier Challenger and Global Express aircraft.

The company's arrival will be a welcome addition to private owners and charter companies with base aircraft at Oxford.  Visiting aircraft will benefit with meet and greet pre and post flight inspections.  Excellence Technicians are also available to respond to AOG situations - both to Excellence Aviation's contracted aircraft customers as well as visiting customers in need of AOG support. Excellence's contracted customers will benefit from 24/7 technical support, departure and arrival assistance, unlimited defect rectification as well as no handling fees on parts or shipping. Unlike the service typically found elsewhere, Excellence's contracted customers also qualify for a total aircraft care and support service.

The independently-owned business, founded 15 years ago, is able to support Challenger 601, 604, 605, 850 models at London Oxford and in the future the Challenger 300 and 350.   Additionally, Excellence has been working on Global Express classic, Global Express XRS and Global Vision since 2000 and has also been certificated to support the Global Express/XRS and G6000VFD at Oxford.

"We were invited to set up a base at London Oxford Airport and were happy to do as it is one of the most popular, top ranked airports for business aviation and it continues to expand its market share," said Managing Director Colin Solley.   "Our main objective is to deliver a quick, capable and can do response to clients."

Excellence will cover small scheduled maintenance tasks including defect rectifications. It will order parts for customers and will hold and keep up maintenance records and carry out service bulletins and airworthiness directives as and when required.  Completion and pre-buy oversights are offered on request. Excellence will also take care of all parts ordering and shipping to support defects and routine maintenance, AD's and Service Bulletins for the customer. It can also provide a technical records service for its customers ensuring quality aircraft records are maintained.

With the set up in Oxford, Excellence is adding to the team two certifying engineers, a mechanic and one administrative role.

"We are delighted to welcome such a high calibre MRO as Excellence Aviation to London Oxford Airport," said Managing Director Andi Alexander.  With an increasing number of Challenger and Global Express aircraft based here and visiting, especially from Europe and the Middle East, they should be quite busy. We have five Global Express-compatible hangar bays currently at Oxford and several Global users have enjoyed our links with the London Heliport which we also operate."

Excellence Aviation was founded by Managing Director Colin Solley in June 2000.  Colin has been supporting Bombardier Challenger aircraft for over 20 years, 10 of which as Director of Maintenance with a private flight department based in Europe where he was responsible for two Bombardier Challenger 601-3R's and two Bombardier Challenger 604's.  Colin began his aviation training with an apprenticeship at British Aerospace in 1981, originally on the BAe 146 programme, before joining Britannia Airways engineering, performing heavy maintenance and repairs on both narrow and wide bodied aircraft including Boeing 737, 757 and 767.

Mike Smith joined as a partner in 2007, bringing complementary expertise in the avionics arena.  Mike has enjoyed 30 years in the business aviation sector, including handling the first Global customer acceptance in year 2000 (for aircraft SN 9013.)   In a career that spans five decades commencing with an apprenticeship with BOAC, Mike signed out the avionics on the first supersonic Concorde flight.

London Oxford Airport is Excellence Aviation's third base after Farnborough Airport and London Luton Airport.

www.excellence-aviation.com