Inflation has reached its highest level in 40 years, business leaders say the confidence needed to support investment is fading and challenges remain for businesses operating across borders and in the EU Europe after Brexit.

Despite all this, you can’t detect any lack of enthusiasm for UK prospects when you talk to Keiron McNeill, Managing Director of JETMS Completions.

The company was created when JETMS, headquartered in Lithuania, bought London Biggin Hill Airport-based RAS Group in 2021; McNeill, a former technical director of Loganair, was named head of the rebranded company in December. His vision for the future of the finishes and interiors sector is certainly not lacking in ambition.

“What I want to build is a finishing center to compete with the major players in the market, and I think we have all the building blocks to do that,” he says. “For too many years it has been all about talent leaving the UK. If you look at the major market players in our world when it comes to aircraft finishes, they are AMAC and Jet Aviation in Basel, Lufthansa Technik in Hamburg and Frankfurt, and RUAG. There is a lot of British talent working in Basel for these companies, and you have to wonder why. Why are they going to Basel to work in aviation? We should keep these people in the UK -United.

To this end, JETMS plans to transform the former RAS Completions and Interiors business into a direct UK-based competitor to major European finishing houses. Existing companies are painting jet-sized business jets and designing and manufacturing aircraft interiors, providing a solid foundation to build on. McNeill is convinced that the market exists to make the concept viable. There are only a few other ingredients needed.

“He needs energy and a strategic plan,” he says. “The strategic plan is on many levels. Firstly, Biggin Hill is the cultural home of this business, and always will be. “Biggin Hill airport just to be part of the ecosystem. We’re going to be increasing our paint volume at Biggin Hill. We currently have a very large aircraft bay that you could probably paint three aircraft in – we’re going to double that volume.”

JETMS’ parent company, Avia Solutions Group, has purchased a building on the Biggin Hill site which McNeill is currently considering how best to use. Planning permission has been granted for a new hangar which would further increase capacity. While the infrastructure takes shape, McNeill focuses on staffing the organization.

“The customer is better served if you have a good workforce that is respected,” he says. “If you have a workforce that feels respected, don’t be surprised if you have the best quality, the best behaviors. It’s a cultural piece that we’re trying to build, everyone seems to want it.”

This part, so far, is going well too, he says.

“We had a pretty high percentage of contract labor here — legacy contractor labor,” says McNeill. “The first thing I wanted to do was make them all permanent employees, because then we can start increasing the terms of service. There’s not a single contract agent left.”

And, while plenty of talent already exists within the organization and investments are underway to expand capabilities, it is its position within a broader portfolio of allied companies that McNeill believes will transform the company. Working on larger aircraft may not be possible at Biggin Hill, but the capability exists elsewhere in the group.

“At the group level, we can enter a market where we don’t exist at the moment,” he says. “The group owns Chevron, Storm Aviation. What tends to constrain people in the large aircraft market is infrastructure. At JETMS, can I do a 747? No, I can’t. But go up to a level [within] Avia Solutions Group: can we make a 747? Yes we can, because we can do the design, part 21. We can do the manufacture, under part 21 or part 145. Our brothers at Chevron in Prestwick [in Scotland] hold a full base maintenance approval for 747-400, 747-800, 787 – you put all those constituent parts together, you have a widebody finish center.