Norwich Airport opens new engine test facility
Norwich Airport opens new engine testing centre
Norwich Airport has officially opened its purpose-built engine testing centre to reduce aircraft noise for neighbouring communities and support aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul facilities at the airport.
The new facility represents a £1.4 million investment by airport owners Rigby Group plc and is another significant milestone in the airport’s ongoing strategy of upgrade and improvement.
The testing centre is a bespoke high tech facility only usually found at larger airports like Stansted or Heathrow. It features a 10m-high, three-sided aluminium acoustic barrier designed to minimise aircraft noise during engine runs.
Engine testing is vital to the work of the Norwich Airport-based aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul businesses and their airline customers.
Norwich Airport managing director Richard Pace said: “This investment will make a significant contribution to improving the local environment by using the latest noise reduction technology. We are committed to making Norwich Airport one of the best in its class and to being a good neighbour, and are delighted to be celebrating the official launch of this important project.”
Alan Waters, leader of Norwich City Council, said: “Norwich has long been the economic and cultural heart of East Anglia so we welcome the opening of this significant facility.
“The engine testing centre is helping to deliver some really positive outcomes for the city by contributing to the employment offer of the airport, adding high value engineering jobs and improving the environment for the benefit of nearby residents. These three elements link back to two of the council’s corporate priorities for the city and its residents – having a safe and clean city which is also prosperous and vibrant.”
Designed by industry leaders APS of Germany, who have more than 30 years of noise protection experience, the engine testing project was managed by Norwich-based Canham Consulting and built by Cromer-based MacKinnon Construction. The new centre came into service in April this year.
Richard Pace added: “This is a world class engineering facility made possible by the airport management team working closing with our local authorities to bring it to fruition.”
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Notes to Editors
About Norwich Airport
Norwich International Airport is part of Regional & City Airports, the airport management division of Rigby Group plc having been acquired in June 2014. The airport employs 250 people.
The Airport offers direct scheduled flights to Amsterdam (with connections to over 600 destinations worldwide), Aberdeen, Alicante, Edinburgh, Exeter, Guernsey, Jersey, Malaga and Manchester. Connections through Manchester enable passengers to reach Belfast, Glasgow, Isle of Man, Inverness and many more.
Holiday flights operate to the Balearic and Canary Islands, Cyprus, Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria and Italy.
The scheduled airlines and charter operators currently active from the Airport are:
KLM, Eastern Airways, bmi regional, Flybe and Loganair Thomson, Thomas Cook, Balkan Holidays, Newmarket Holidays and Omega Holidays
The airport is a key hub for the southern North Sea offshore oil and gas industry. Four major offshore helicopter operators are based at the airport. These are Bristow, Bond, CHC and NHV. Last year 100,000 passengers travelled offshore from the Airport.
About Rigby Group plc
Rigby Group plc is the parent company for a portfolio of family-owned and highly successful businesses operating across Europe and the Middle East. Diversifying from its origins as a principally technology-led business, Rigby Group plc has evolved over four decades- through smart, strategic acquisitions – into a £2bn British success story employing over 7,500 people.
Rigby Group comprises six key divisions: Technology (SCC – Europe’s largest independent IT services business), Airports (Regional & City Airports, Norwich Airport, Exeter Airport and Coventry Airport), Hotels (the Eden Hotel Collection), Real Estate (Rigby & Rigby superprime property development, Rigby Group Real Estate including Imperial Park, Coventry), Aviation (British International Helicopters and Capital Air Ambulance), and Finance (Rigby Private Equity, Rigby Investments and Rigby Capital).
About Regional & City Airports (RCA)
Regional & City Airports (RCA) is Rigby Group’s highly-innovative airport management company. RCA owns and operates Norwich Airport, Exeter Airport and Coventry Airport, holds management contracts for Blackpool International Airport, City of Derry Airport and Lee on Solent airfield, and is actively building its portfolio of owned or managed airport assets across the next five years.
Regional airports are vitally important to the economic development of regions, not just in the UK but across the world. To survive and prosper, smaller regional airports need to cooperate and collaborate – enabling them to benefit from the economies of scale and sharing of best practice traditionally enjoyed by larger hub airports. This is the vision behind RCA.
RCA has built a reputation as an efficient, safe and commercially-savvy airport operator, driving improvements to route development, commercial revenues, operating costs and capital investment in order to deliver a consistently sound commercial return. As RCA grows it is increasingly able to leverage significant buying power and shared expertise. Already employing more than 650 people, RCA is on its way to becoming a leading player in the regional airport sector and is taking advantage of the lack of capacity at major hub airports in the UK to demonstrate how regional airports can ease the strain.
For more information contact:
Judy Groves, Marketing Director, Rigby Group Plc, [email protected], 07850 622488
OR
Jason Clark, DCA Public Relations, [email protected], 01208-77900, 07980-834368