Craigavon firm's new business-class seat cements expansion of engineering in Northern Ireland

County Armagh-based Thompson Aero Seating is launching a new business-class seat.

The launch of the VantageNOVA has heralded further significant growth of Thompson Aero Seating’s engineering function in Banbridge and Portadown, County Armagh.

A market leader in premium aircraft seating, Thompson based in Craigavon is a home-grown success story for business in Northern Ireland.

Founded 20 years ago with the introduction of its first Vantage fully-flat bed seat, Thompson has launched the newest star of the Vantage seating family which is designed specifically for large, twin-aisle aircraft, like the A350.

The VantageNOVA is an angled seat and has been designed by Thompson to achieve space and privacy for passengers. In a competitive market, the VantageNOVA is already in great demand among airlines and to meet demand, Thompson is looking to increase its engineering function.

So far in 2024, Thompson has already increased its engineering capability by 33%, with engineers who are not all specifically from an aerospace background.

Thompson finds it valuable to engage engineers with alternative experience, such as automotive, agricultural and marine, as they bring with them different expertise that helps the company to evolve and improve.

Jonny McGreevy, vice president engineering at Thompson Aero Seating, explained: “Our range of premium aircraft seating is phenomenally successful and now our newest seat, the VantageNOVA, is in huge demand.

"We have a wealth of own-grown talent and engineering expertise specifically relating to aviation but we still need greater capacity. This could include engineers from various backgrounds such as mechanical, electrical, product development, engineering management, mechatronics, aeronautical, agricultural or automotive, to carry out a range of end-to-end tasks from product development; bid management and concept creation to 3D part-creation and designing; digital mock-up management; and airworthiness reporting.

"Thompson is looking to fulfil these roles with a blend of engineering capabilities via a range of talents from graduate engineers through to experienced engineers and airworthiness specialists.”

To meet continued growth and popularity for its products Thompson has plans to further increase capability into 2025 by another 30%, along with a range of site and infrastructure development plans, which match the world-class testing environment.

Only a year ago that Thompson opened the doors to its new Thompson Engineering Centre at Banbridge, which included the launch of its Dynamic Test Facility. These give Thompson’s engineers the capability to perform full-scale crash testing on-site in Northern Ireland, which connects airworthiness compliance full circle back to research and development.

This connection enables specialist engineers to be heavily involved in R&D and, vice versa, R&D engineers to be heavily involved in airworthiness requirements, which aids Thompson in rapidly evolving and pioneering the next cycle of product innovation.

Laura McCarthy, engineering HR manager at Thompson Aero Seating, added: “The strength of the team at Thompson is partly in its diverse nature. We have engineers of all ages and levels of experience, from all sector backgrounds. This gives us a full perspective of innovation and expertise that enables us to remain agile and right at the cutting edge of engineering achievement.”