Midcoast Aviation comes to NBAA this year having defied the economic
doldrums with substantial growth at all four of its locations.
At the FBO's St. Louis Downtown Airport location, work continues
on a $400,000 renovation project which will increase the company's
presence from 1,600 to 6,600 square feet and will feature a flight
planning center, lounges and a conference center when completed
by year's end. The mainstay of the Downtown Airport facility is
Challenger 604 completions for Bombardier, which started in 1999
and stand at 40 completed to date. The company also modified one
of its hangars to handle paint jobs for the Global Express and
G500, completing two over the summer.
At two other locations-Lambert-St. Louis International and Spirit
of St. Louis airports-operations are expanding as well. At Spirit,
which just completed its second year in business, maintenance
activities increased 57% this year, requiring two-shift operations
and a workforce increase of 30%. At Lambert, they've increased
staff by 60% and leased an additional 24,000 square feet of hangar
space.
At the Perryville Municipal Airport, Midcoast recently added FAA
authorization for the Learjet 60 to its repair station certificate,
joining its authorizations for the Learjet 20- and 30-series and
55. Also at Perryville, in addition to the 12,000-hour inspection
program Midcoast handles for the U.S. Air Force's fleet of C-21As
(Lear 35As), the company provides maintenance, avionics, interior
refurbishment and painting as well as CJ610/CF700 engine service
for the Lear 20-series.
Amid the growth, Midcoast also refocused on its core business this past year-airframes.
As such, Midcoast's parent company, Sabreliner, sold its Premier
Turbines engine division to Dallas Airmotive and its fueling and
tenant management services at Lambert to BBA's Signature Flight
Support subsidiary.
