Gateway gets 2 aircraft maintenance centers

Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport is ringing in the new year with the opening of two new aircraft maintenance centers, each with the potential to employ at least 100 workers. Hawker Beechcraft Corp. and Cessna both opened facilities Monday to repair and maintain aircraft operated by their executive and business customers.

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Both are replacing older maintenance centers in California that became too crowded for expansion. The Hawker Beechcraft Services center replaces the company’s Van Nuys location, which will close on March 31, and the Cessna service center will replace an existing facility at Long Beach Airport, which will close in a few weeks.

“HBS conducted an extensive evaluation of the Southwest for our new regional service center,” said Andy Plyler, vice president of Hawker Beechcraft Services. “Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport was far superior in terms of location, economic infrastructure and a customer-friendly business environment.”

He added that Mesa’s average of 325 days of sunshine yearly provides ideal conditions to fly in aircraft needing repair work.

HBS, based in Wichita, Kan., is leasing 5.1 acres from the airport authority with an option to expand to 10.7 acres in the future. Opening Monday was a 26,000-square-foot hangar acquired and improved by the company to accommodate maintenance work.

Scheduled to open in November is a second-phase 20,000-square-foot hangar plus a 22,000-square-foot administrative center. Construction on the second phase will begin soon, said Hawker Beechcraft spokesman Andrew Broom.

The center is offering airframe, avionics, engine and other maintenance support for Hawker Beechcraft’s entire line of jet aircraft, the firm said.

It is one of 12 factory-owned Hawker Beechcraft service facilities in the United States, Mexico and the United Kingdom.

The initial phase will bring 40 to 60 new jobs with a later expansion to more than 100.

The Cessna facility, whose cost was not announced, will initially employ about 70 people, many of them transferred from Long Beach, said spokesman Doug Oliver. As the business expands, employment could rise to about 100, he said.

The center, one of 10 in Cessna’s maintenance network, consists of 101,000 square feet of hanger, office and backshop space. It will handle maintenance of the company’s Citation business jets.

Wichita-based Cessna is leasing 12 acres at the airport and could lease additional land for further expansion, Oliver said.

Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport is becoming a hub of company-owned aircraft maintenance centers.

In addition to Hawker Beechcraft and Cessna, Embraer, a Brazilian producer of business jets, opened a service installation in September. Another maintenance center is planned by Crownair Aviation.

Mesa Project Manager Scott Rigby said the emergence of Gateway as a maintenance center for business aircraft could energize future development of the area.

“You have to look at who is flying those planes,” he said. “Those are senior-level people who make decisions on projects with the opportunity to come to the East Valley. They can see there is a lot of available land and freeway access for good developments.”