Midcoast Aviation Opens its New Narrow-body Hangar, The Company’s Largest-ever

Oct. 2, 2008
The structure, which features two 48,000-sq-ft bays, is connected by a 36,000 sq ft, three-story center core and also offers 14,000 sq ft of support shop space

St. Louis, Missouri, September 29, 2008 – Midcoast Aviation’s new 146,000 sq ft narrow-body hangar — its largest ever — is now open for business. The hangar was completed within 14 months with a total investment of $18.5 million. As part of this expansion, the company will add at least 200 new employees within the first two years of operation.

To accommodate the growing narrow-body business aircraft market and Midcoast’s robust completions schedule, the company broke ground in July 2007 to construct its new, $18.5 million state-of-the-art hangar. The structure, which features two 48,000-sq-ft bays, is connected by a 36,000 sq ft, three-story center core and also offers 14,000 sq ft of support shop space. The new addition brings the company’s hangar space at St. Louis Downtown Airport near St. Louis, MO, to nearly 650,000 sq ft.

“The new building will serve as our green completions delivery center and allows Midcoast to centralize completions activities in two hangars,” says Kurt Sutterer, Midcoast president. “I am also happy that with the new infrastructure we can continue to provide for our region excellent career opportunities at Midcoast Aviation.”

The state of Illinois provided a $4 million investment package from its “Opportunity Returns” initiative. This program is part of Governor Rod Blagojevich’s comprehensive economic development strategy to continue creating new jobs and spur growth in Southwest Illinois. “I also wanted to thank the state of Illinois and Governor Blagojevich for supporting us in the company’s largest construction project in its history,” said Sutterer.

From its total of nine hangars, Midcoast has dedicated five of them to supporting the growing maintenance business while two hangars are fully equipped for aircraft painting. Currently, Midcoast is in the planning process of building another state-of-the-art paint facility designed to accommodate larger aircraft.

Midcoast Aviation, an affiliate of the Jet Aviation Group of Companies, is a full-service AS9100-certified aircraft maintenance, modifications and completions provider. The company employs more than 2,000 people at the St. Louis Downtown Airport location and its satellites in Boston/Bedford, MA; Chicago, IL; St. Louis, MO; Palm Beach, FL, and Teterboro, NJ, including the recently acquired MRO and completions facility Savannah Air Center. Midcoast Aviation is a Dassault Falcon, Bombardier, Hawker Beechcraft and Embraer authorized service center and also a Gulfstream center of expertise. For more information, visit www.midcoastaviation.com.