Business is really taking off at an island company cornering the market as a global aviation consultancy.

Few people walking along a busy street in the capital would even have known about the work of Aerotech International.

The company is based behind the doors of an unassuming top floor office in Victoria Street.

Yet this is a multi-million pound enterprise which offers high-powered technical consultancy services in the world of air travel.

The company has around 100 consultants dotted at strategic places on its books.

Aerotech International offers technical services to airlines, lease companies, banks, corporate service providers and law firms.

They deal with aircraft ranging in size from tiny turbo prop machines to jumbo jets.

Martin Sanderson, managing director, has built the business up from scratch and it is now so busy some work has to be turned down.

Martin, 54, said: ‘It would be true to say that every day is different for us, and that’s how we like it.’

Former RAF man Martin told how the Aerotech International story started in 2005.

He said his last job was as a manger with ManxAirlines at Ronaldsway.

After BA took over the airline he was then given the task of managing the return of the old aircraft back to the people who originally leased the aircraft out.

He said: ‘In the process of handing back the aircraft I made the contacts I needed to, within the aircraft leasing business, to be able to start doing this myself as a freelance.

‘I started the business in 2005 on my own and very quickly realised that I needed more help because I was starting to get more work in than I could cope with.’

He enlisted help from a ‘few trusted friends’ and it grew from there. In 2009 his wife Jayne left her managerial job at the HSBC bank after 30 years to join him to work full time in the Aerotech success story.

Martin explained that up until two years ago he was spending a lot of his time out ‘on the road’ travelling around the world on business while Jayne looked after the administrative side of things.

He added: ‘In 2016 we had

grown to such a size that no longer could I be out on the road any more doing the actual bread and butter work.

‘We’ve got to the stage where we have more than 20 clients around the world along with a pool of just over100 consultants to call on.

‘At any one time now we probably have 50 projects around the world on the books that are either in work or are just about to start.’

‘They range from work in Europe, China, India, Pakistan, Philippines to Singapore. We also have people in the US and Colombia.

‘From this little office here we really are all over the world.’

Lease companies and banks own the aeroplanes and they generally don’t have the in-house technical resources to manage the transition of the airliners.

When an aircraft goes to a carrier the average lease term is around six years.

At the end of that lease poeriod it then transitions to another airline.

‘What we do is that we will go along and inspect the aeroplane in accordance with the lease conditions.

‘Aerotech will verify the work has been done and will then ensure that alterations requested for by the new carrier, have been carried out.’

For instance it might mean project managing an aircraft from being a Qatar Airways Aircraft to Dragon Air in Hong Kong.

Martin said: ‘We will go wherever the aeroplane is in maintenance and we will transition it from one operator to another, and looking after the owner’s best interests.

‘If the lease says they are entitled to having this, that or the other done then we ensure it is done.’

The business has another role, ensuring aircraft are being looked after and maintained.

It also gets involved in repossessions. Martin explained: ‘When airlines go bust we have to go in and take the aircraft back.’

He likened this part of their work as being like a bailiff.

‘Obviously we have to have the legal backing of the lease company and they will have lawyers working in the background but quite often they will ask us to actually serve a no fly order on the aircraft operator and to hand over the paperwork.’

Aerotech were given work after a number of high profile airline collapses including Russian airline VIM Airlines, and last year Air Berlin and Monarch.

Six people work in the Douglas office and another person has just been recruited.

Martin said the work around the world had given him an insight into different cultures. And he said the consultants used by Aerotech had to be special people with tough skins as emotions can sometimes run high as Martin found out himself once in a Chinese boardroom.

After starting the business Martin and his wife Jayne did not take a holiday for 10 years.

The Laxey couple plan to take a well-earned break soon.

And there will be no planes involved! They have a touring caravan in the UK and will be heading for the Lake District.