THE company that provides the RAF’s fleet of Voyager transport and refuelling aircraft is expanding the range of work carried out at its base at Brize Norton.

AirTanker has responsibility for delivering and maintaining Voyager planes under a contract with the RAF.

Last month, a 40-strong engineering team completed its first in-house periodic C-check maintenance inspection of one of the Voyagers before the aircraft underwent planned modifications.

C-checks are carried out every 18 months as part of a 12-year cycle.

And the team has also successfully completed its first in-house conversion of an Airbus A330-200 airliner into a military-specification Voyager, bringing the fleet up to 10 aircraft.

The other planes were converted by Airbus or external contractors.

Work on the 11th plane will be completed early next year, with three more due to be completed this year and next to bring the Voyager fleet up to 14 planes, with nine forming a core fleet for the RAF.

The other five will be available for charter by civilian operators but can be “called up” by the RAF if they are needed for military duties.

Paul Kimberley, AirTanker’s director of fleet engineering, said: “We’re no longer reliant on external providers or in competition with other carriers for maintenance slots, delivering flexibility to align work more effectively and to minimise the impact of scheduled maintenance on our operations.

“It gives us far greater security and allows us to deliver a better service to the RAF but also demonstrates the solid support and engineering capability that AirTanker is building here at RAF Brize Norton.”

He added: “We have full Civil Aviation Authority approvals, a state-of-the-art engineering facility and we offer a service which is benchmarked against that of commercial service providers. “We’re very much focused on applying that expertise in support of our primary customer, the RAF.

“There may also be scope to extend this service to a wider A330 market place in the future.”