SLO Aviation Company Opens New 90,000-square-foot Campus Near Airport, is Hiring
A San Luis Obispo-based aviation company has significantly upgraded its headquarters and operations facilities with a massive new campus at the San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport complex.
The new facility sets up ACI Jet, Inc., a private company that employs about 175 people locally, for expanded services and operations, including new jobs, ACI Jet officials say.
ACI Jet offers a range of aviation services — including aircraft maintenance, charter flight, and management operations — at its new campus, which boasts more than 90,000 square feet of office, hangar and shop space.
The business officially moved into its new fixed-based operator (FBO) and operations facility on Monday. It will re-purpose some of its older buildings, with staff moving into the new wing.
"This facility will put us on the map for real," said Bill Borgsmiller, ACI Jet's CEO and president. "I think we'll be a bigger player in California's aerospace industry."
SLO aviation company expands over 2 decades
Founded in 1998, ACI Jet employs about 300 people total. The company has a Santa Ana branch in Orange County with about 125 employees.
Locally, the company leases its buildings from the San Luis Obispo County government.
Much of the company's customer base consists of private pilots and aircraft operators of planes in the western United States. But the business offers services for people from all over the world.
"As we've grown over the years, we've spread out to many different trailers and modular facilities all over the ( San Luis Obispo) airport," Borgsmiller said. "This will be the first time in over a decade that everyone will be under one roof again. It's bringing the team back together."
ACI Jet moves into new campus
Design of ACI Jet's new facility began in 2005 with the start of construction on the showroom hangar and corporate offices launching in 2018.
The two-story building, with its massive "ACI Jet" signage, is located close to the Cal Fire airport station on the airport complex. The campus has views of the runway and surrounding hillsides.
The new headquarters facility, which has a CalGreen certification for environmental conscientiousness, houses administrative and sales operations, two dedicated conference rooms, an expanded secure parts and tooling space, and two dedicated offices for clients to use while their aircraft are undergoing maintenance.
"Maintenance customers have a front-row seat when their aircraft are being serviced," Dave Jensen, senior vice president of aircraft maintenance, said in a news release. "From the window of their fully furnished, private office on the second floor, they have full view of their aircraft, access to real-time data about their maintenance visit schedule and a team of people focused on their experience."
"We're transforming the aircraft maintenance experience to one commensurate with the private jet travel experience that these same planners and managers provide their aircraft owners," he said.
ACI Jet announced in 2019 that it had become an authorized service facility for Bombardier aircrafts, offering maintenance, warranty and inspections for large-cabin Challenger and Global business jets. That made it a western U.S. hub for those planes.
Company to expand with new jobs
Borgsmiller said that the new building will allow ACI Jet to hire new employees — with a focus on jobs in maintenance, repair and overhaul services.
The company currently has about 25 job openings, with plans to hire more than a dozen employees in the aircraft maintenance division alone by the end of the year, according to company officials.
Borgsmiller said that ACI Jet is actively working with Cuesta College, which has three community college campuses in San Luis Obispo County, to start an aerospace technology program to help meet aviation workforce demand and provide local head-of-household jobs in the future.
"We want to give people that opportunity here to people who don't currently have it," Borgsmiller said.
Aircraft technicians could start out making $50,000 per year, but earn more than $100,000 annually with experience, Borgsmiller said.
Business wants to get people 'passionate about aviation'
Commercial aircraft services slowed during the coronavirus pandemic, but ACI Jet leaders said that private flights saw steady use — experiencing even more demand at times from customers seeking to social distance.
On an average day, the company has about 35 field operation interactions from private, military, emergency medical and commercial entities, as well as the California Highway Patrol, according to company FBO vice president Andrew Robillard.
Borgsmilller said that members of the public will be able to visit the new ACI Jet facility and get an up-close view of the hangar's showroom, which features planes housed under a tall ceiling.
"As soon as you show up, you can see an airplane," Borgsmiller said. "That's one of the big components we tried to incorporate into this facility, to inspire people to get passionate about aviation. We tried to remove barriers. So much about airplanes is behind a locked fence and you can't get in there."
The customers in the FBO lobby and drivers along Highway 227 can get a view of aircraft within the hangar, company officials said.
"Here, you already feel like you're next to a plane in the parking lot," Borgsmiller said. "And as you come through the lobby, you can see everything, and the lobby is extended out in front of the hangars so you feel like you're on the ramp and the windows title out like you're in a control tower."
Robillard said in the release that "members of California's vibrant aviation community are encouraged to stop by to say hello and see our new digs."
"Of course, we welcome aviators from near and far to experience what has been described as 'the finest FBO in North America,' " he said.
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