Aug. 12 -- You could be seeing more helicopters landing at Reading Regional Airport in the coming months.
Uniflight Inc., a helicopter overhaul and repair service center based in Grand Prairie, Texas, has agreed to buy Millennium Aviation at Reading Regional, with closing expected late this month, according to Millennium owner and President Peter H. Knight.
Knight declined to disclose the selling price.
Uniflight would keep Millennium's name and existing air-charter services but add a helicopter repair and maintenance base in the hangar at Millennium's base, Knight said.
In fact, Reading Regional would be the eastern U.S. maintenance base for American Eurocopter, a division of Germany-based EADS, which also owns aircraft-manufacturer Airbus, based in Toulouse, France.
American Eurocopter also is based in Grand Prairie, Texas.
The maintenance base would create about 24 high-tech jobs over the next two years at Reading Regional, Knight told the airport authority on Tuesday.
He noted that Uniflight had looked at several other airports, including Allentown and Lancaster, before settling on Reading.
The deal would include refurbishing the old hangar, the first built at the airport.
Knight would no longer be president, but would be a member of the board, he said. Other Millennium officials and employees would remain, he said.
Eurpcopter is the largest helicopter manufacturer in the world, but its American division is the last of the four leading makers -- including Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., MD Helicopters Inc., and Bell Helicopter Textron Inc. -- to have a presence in southeastern Pennsylvania.
American Eurocopter makes about half the helicopters bought by U.S. law enforcement agencies and is the main supplier for the nation's tour, corporate and air medical service operators.
Contact Don Spatz: 610-371-5027 or [email protected]
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