Aerospace company finds boom in seat refurbishment.

When United Airlines decided to start its "ps" luxury service between New York and Los Angeles, it didn't buy new planes. But it was in the market for new leather seats.

The service, aimed at high-end leisure and business travelers, prompted the carrier to upgrade the interiors of all 12 of its Boeing 757s from top to bottom, a job completed in March by Valencia-based Regent Aerospace Corp.

"We totally gutted those planes," said Robin Ubanski, spokeswoman for UAL Corp., the Chicago-based parent of United Airlines. "The first-class section is bigger with more seats, and they're leather and have more legroom. And all the aircrafts' seats have 110 volt outlets like you have in your house for electronic devices."

It's just one example of Regent's recent revenue ascent. The company, which specializes in refurbishing the seats of aging aircrafts, opened two new plants in Indianapolis, Ind. and South Korea this year, and plans to break ground on an 80,000-square-foot factory in Lancaster in the next few months.

It reflects, in part, the efforts by major airlines to compete with discount carriers such as JetBlue Airways while cutting costs any way they can--including shopping work out to specialists such as Regent.

"Refurbishing is an incredibly important part of the airline industry," said Vaughn Cordle, chief analyst with Washington, D.C.-based market research firm Airline Forecasts LLC. "They're outsourcing every non-core area of work they can, as fast as they can, so these niche players are in a good position in a strong growth market."

Opportunity knocks

Regent has benefited as a result of a contract it signed with UAL in 2002 to be the exclusive provider of seat refurbishment services to the airline. Other customers include General Electric Co.'s Commercial Aviation Services, which owns a fleet of 1,300 jets it leases to airlines, United Parcel Service of America Inc. and American Airlines Inc. Regent also refurbishes interiors for planes operated by the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Postal Service, the U.S. Air Force and Marine Corps. and Boeing Co.

The closely held company was founded in 1993 with a 15,000-square foot-facility and 45 employees by owner Reza Soltanian, a former executive at another seat refurbisher that was acquired and shut down.

The lion's share of Regent's work is regular maintenance, which is required by the Federal Aviation Administration. Regent removes some or all of an aircraft's seats during regular maintenance at the airport, and replaces them with sets of previously refurbished spares. The seats that were removed are then trucked to Regent's plant and stopped down for inspection. As needed, the nuts, bolts and springs are replaced. Some seats only get new fabric or other components such as armrest end-caps before they're returned to the airline warehouse.

But Regent is also contracted to redo the upholstery of entire fleets when an airline alters its logos or colors.

Business jumped with the United contract and the company now employs 300. Its new plant in Busan, South Korea was opened to service United's growing Asian business. It also has seen a steady stream of work coming from the major airlines dedicating more seats to first and business classes.

With the expansion of its Indianapolis plant, Regent is starting to refurbish emergency features such as inflatable slides, flotation cushions and life rafts as its customers increasingly look for consolidated services.

"This new segment fits in with our market, because those emergency parts are maintained at the same time as the seats," said Regent spokesman Larry Levey. "Everyone is looking at their supply chain management. They'd rather have a one-stop-shop."