Jobs boost as Telford firm's aircraft ramps 'take world by storm'

Aviramp Ltd said it had been able to re-employ staff whom the company had been forced to lay off during the Covid pandemic.

Altogether, the business has recruited 20 staff and is still in the recruitment phase, with the expectation of getting up to 30.

The company, a Queen's Award winner in 2021 for International Trade, has received multi-million pound orders from around the globe including the US, South Africa, Europe and New Zealand, as well as the UK.

Locally, passengers may also board on an Aviramp at Birmingham Airport which now has multiple units.

Aviramp boarding ramps and bridges replace the traditional passenger boarding methods of stairs and separate ambulifts for wheelchair users and those passengers with reduced mobility when an aircraft is parked on a remote stand not connected to the terminal.

All passengers board together in safety and with dignity on the easy low-angled ramp slopes, meaning wheelchair users are not taken away from family and friends to be boarded by a separate truck. Children and parents carrying children also board safely without the fear of falling from steep aircraft stairs.

Graham Corfield, CEO and founder of Aviramp, said: “It took a long time for airports and airlines to see the benefits to passengers and their operation that Aviramp brings and now it seems every airport worldwide are waiting for their Aviramps to be delivered.

"We used the Covid shutdown to develop all of the units so that they can be powered purely with sustainable solar power and now the benefits are really shining down on us now.

"It's great that a product completely manufactured in the Midlands is taking the world by storm."