Flying high: Crews of 2Excel Aviation prepare for take-off after the company won the oil spill patrol contract for another three years
An aviation services company based at Sywell Aerodrome in Northamptonshire is celebrating after extending its contract to operate oil spill spotter aircraft across UK waters.
2Excel Aviation will continue to operate its PA-31 Navajo after securing the chosen delivery partner contract with Oil Spill Response Ltd for another three years from January 2023, with an optional extension of up to two years.
It will monitor the waters of the UK Continental Shelf in which Britain has mineral rights. These includes parts of the North Sea, North Atlantic, the Irish Sea and the English Channel.
2Excel Aviation and OSRL have worked together for nine years. “We have always understood the importance of delivering excellence and value for our customers and not only are we pleased to have secured this further contract with a like-minded and forward-thinking customer like OSRL but we are also incredibly proud of the way it was won,” said 2Excel’s director of special missions Arnie Palmer.
“I would like to applaud our team for how they conducted the bid, and those across our organisation who work tirelessly to keep this aircraft operational for the world’s largest dedicated oil spill response organisation. We look forward to our continued excellent working relationship with OSRL.”
OSRL’s chief executive Robert Limb said: “OSRL has full confidence in the capabilities of 2Excel Aviation and this contract is testament to that. Over the past nine years, we have established an excellent partnership and we look forward to developing this further.”
Founded in 2005 by two RAF pilots, 2Excel Aviation has grown from five employees and four aerobatic aircraft to more than 400 staff and a fleet of 30. It became 51 per cent employee owned in 2018 through the creation of an Employee Ownership Trust and now has annual turnover of more than £45 million.
2Excel also flies from Stansted and Doncaster Sheffield Airports and Lasham Airfield in Hampshire. It works with government departments, the defence and oil industries, airlines and airline brokers.
