HondaJet Breaks Ground on $15.5 Million Expansion at PTI Campus

By Richard M. Barron

Source News & Record, Greensboro, N.C.

July 31, 2019

2 min read

GREENSBORO — Honda Aircraft Co. will be able to build its jets more quickly because of a $15.5 million expansion it broke ground for on Tuesday.

Gov. Roy Cooper and a variety of business and political leaders joined Honda Aircraft CEO Michimasa Fujino in the ceremony outside a vast field that will be the site of the 82,000-square-foot building that Honda will add to its campus at Piedmont Triad International Airport.

The company said the new building will bring its investment at the airport to $245 million with more than 1,500 employees. Although the new building will not bring any new employees, it will allow the company to expand its production of its light business jet from four jets to five HondaJets per month.

Cooper said the expansion enhances North Carolina's economy as a center of aviation manufacturing.

He said the state has the second-fastest growing aerospace business cluster in the nation with 200 aerospace companies and 400 suppliers.

Kevin Baker, PTI's executive director, said Honda Aircraft's expansion will help it with "vertical integration", which means it will control more of its manufacturing process on site with available aircraft parts at hand for the aircraft-building process.

Contact Richard M. Barron at 336-373-7371 and follow @BarronBizNR on Twitter.

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