Jun 24, 2013
Carole Hawkins
Reporter- Jacksonville Business Journal

At a ground breaking ceremony for a new 150,000-square-foot hangar at Cecil Airport, Flightstar president Jerry Hernandez joked it was probably time to start planning another hangar for two years out. It was about two years ago the company last expanded into a new 100,000 square foot hanger.

“If you can build me more hangars, I’ll take them,” Hernandez said to JAA’s CEO Steve Grossman. “What we have here is not ‘build it and they will come.’ I can use it today.”

Flightstar needs the expansion to accommodate work requested by its existing customers, Hernandez said, though he’s not ruling out serving new clients with the facility.

The company overhauls, maintains and repairs commercial aircraft for airlines such as Delta Airlines Inc. (NYSE:DAL), Southwest Airlines Co. (NYSE:LUV), The Boeing Co. (NYSE:BA), DHL Express, FedEx Corp. AirTran Airways, and Allegiant Air.

With the expansion, FlightStar plans to create 250 new jobs.

The $27 million project is the largest building project ever undertaken by JAA at Cecil Airport and is being funded equally by the JAA and Florida Department of Transportation.

Under the agreement with Flightstar, JAA will build the hangar and office facility on 11.5 acres of airport property. The hangar is expected to be completed by late 2014.

Source: http://bit.ly/19lHYzo