Location, Location, Location

ecube Chief Operations Officer Simon Nolan reflects on his first six months as part of the ecube family.

If I were to pick one word to describe my first six months at ecube it would have to be growth.

I have seen growth in all parts of the business, especially across all operational touch points, and this has ultimately seen us expand services, capability, and capacity across all locations. Now is a good time to not only reflect on what has been, but also what we look forward to.

The launch of our newest facility in Coolidge, Arizona has got off to a flying start, going from celebrating our first disassembly starting in February to now having aircraft number ten lined up for disassembly – a massive achievement, and a credit to the brilliant team we have built in the U.S.

The initial growth in the U.S is also a testament to the strength of relationships ecube has with its customers and the trust they have in our services shown in their willingness and confidence to place their assets into a greenfield site at the beginning of operations. As we move into H2 our U.S capabilities will be expanding to enable us to offer the full range of services currently on offer in the UK and Spain.

Whilst the Coolidge facility has been a key focus in H1, the HQ site in St. Athan, the genesis of the business, has contributed positively towards what is on track to be a stellar year for disassembly activity.  Our in-house maintenance operation has increased its capabilities, with additions to our EASA Part-145 approval, meaning that we are now approved for maintenance on the A320 family, B737 Classic/NG, B757 and B767, as well as receiving our UK CAA Part-145 with capability matched to the EASA approval and the addition of B777. Finally, to ensure the business is operationally capable for many years to come we are investing in the St. Athan facility, undertaking some major infrastructure upgrades, and I look forward to the works completing by year end.

Over at our EU facility in Castellón, Spain, it has been really pleasing to contribute to what will be the best year in ecube’s history. With more aircraft disassembled in H1 alone compared to the whole of 2022, thanks to customers including Lufthansa Technik, Setna iO, and ACS.  As a result of this positive start to the year, we have further invested into the infrastructure on site, and I look forward to sharing some exciting news on that by the end of 2023.

At ecube the whole team believe in a ‘1 aircraft, 3 locations’ philosophy and it has been great to see how all our locations have become aligned by look, feel, and process this year to ensure our customers get an identical service no matter which one of our three locations they choose to place their aircraft. As we move in to H2, the operations team aim to enhance this alignment further, launching a centralised planning and control function from the UK which will become the operational interface for our customers.

My first half year has gone by very quickly, it has been amazing to spend time with our great team across all our sites and getting to know our customers. We have certainly achieved a lot, but we are determined to not stop there and have plenty of exciting news to come supporting your aircraft at our location, location, location.