A New Empire Joins MRO Market

The newest heavy MRO facility in the aviation industry--Empire Aero Center--held a grand opening ceremony on August 6. Located at the Griffiss Business and Technology Park in Rome, New York, Empire Aero Center offers a full range of maintenance, repair, and overhaul capabilities for commercial and military aircraft.

Empire Aero Center is housed in a former B-52 Strategic Air Command facility that has undergone a $17 million refurbishment to make it more suited for commercial maintenance activities. The hangars were extended forward by 50 feet and taller doors installed so that a Boeing 747 can fit inside. Floors were reinforced with 14 inches of concrete to support 747-size jackpoints, and the entire facility was repainted, a new roof installed, fire-suppression and-detection systems installed, and backshops built for composites, sheetmetal, interior work, avionics and electrical, and NDT.

Empire Aero Center is a subsidiary of Israel Aircraft Industries, which used to operate a heavy MRO company called Commodore Aviation in Miami, Florida. New York state and local government and development organizations as well as IAI teamed to help fund Commodore's move to Griffiss. The funding package totaled $25.5 million and helped pay for the work to renovate the hangar complex, relocation assistance, and job training. Of that total funding, IAI contributed $12 million in guarantees and financing.

The Empire Aero strategy is not to gain as much market share as possible, according to vice president of marketing and sales Rick Smith, but to build the business carefully so that customers are taken are of. "We're building one customer at a time," he said, "and we're not taking on any business that we can't insure customer satisfaction. We'd like to have volume someday, but right now we're emphasizing success."

Empire had about 190 employees in August and planned to grow to 500 by the end of 2005. The Rome, New York area has a good supply of certificated mechanics and so far 99 percent of the mechanics at Empire hold A&P certificates, according to Jeffrey Story, vice president of operations.

Israel Aircraft Industries runs its processes using "lean" techniques, and these have been adopted to the Empire Aero operation, Story said, to improve quality and lower span time. "We believe that lean is something that we need to do," he added. "It's tough, but the key is building a good cookie cutter, good processes. And we're able to start fresh, where others have lots of bad habits in place. "Span time is most critical to customers," he continued. "Our main objective is to worry about our customers' span time and quality."

"If we really meet our goals," said Empire Aero president Joseph Reinherz, "we may add up to three more hangars. We think it should be controlled growth. We need to build capacity in a sound manner. It should be a deep, close relationship with the customer, with profound trust."

PAMA Drops Dues

Responding to criticism from potential members that dues for joining were too high, the Professional Aviation Maintenance Association has lowered annual individual membership fees to $49. With the reduction, PAMA is also eliminating the $15 per member chapter rebate that was a feature of the previous $70 per year rate. The new rate became effective September 1. PAMA will also offer a discounted automatic renewal option.

PAMA's board of directors voted for the dues reduction, emphasizing that "growing PAMA's membership is the top priority of PAMA's board and the cost of dues had become a disproportionately large deciding factor for prospective and renewing members in these difficult financial times."

"Though dues costs are not usually given as the reason people join an association," stated a PAMA press release, "if dues are viewed as too high for the economic environment, association growth can stall. This problem became evident and increasingly difficult for PAMA as aviation's economic momentum slowed over the past several years."

"This landmark vote was driven by PAMA's regional directors," said PAMA president Brian Finnegan, "and the leadership of PAMA's nationwide chapter network. It is an essential step into a prosperous future."

"People want to join PAMA," said Finnegan. "There are many organizations that represent pilots and others in aviation, but on issues that are maintenance-oriented, those groups don't have anything to say for us. We have to support our team to put together this effort, and that comes from members and company support. We have such great potential as an association."

Jet Works, Business Air Merging

Two North Texas-based business jet maintenance companies--Jet Works Aviation and Business Air Center--are merging to create a new full-service maintenance, avionics, paint, and interior refurbishment facility. The merger involves moving Jet Works from Fort Worth's Meacham Field to a new 30,000 square foot facility at Denton Airport. The combined company's name is Jet Works Air Center. Until the new hangar is finished in the second quarter of 2005, the company will operate from the existing facilities in Fort Worth and Denton.

Business Air Center was originally an FBO, aircraft sales, and charter company, but in May, the company's president, Trey Bryson, and founder Wayne Cecil decided to reenter the interior and paint business, with which both companies had long experience. Business Air Center bought an existing interior business at Denton to jumpstart the refurb side of the company. And as the refurb business grew, they decided to build a new hangar at Denton.

At about the same time, Cecil and Bryson were talking to the owners of Jet Works Aviation about possible partnerships. "We have an outstanding relationship with Jet Works," Bryson said.

But Bryson, having experienced attempts at partnering and forming strategic alliances between two different companies, is not a fan of two companies trying to serve one customer. So he brought up the idea of merging Jet Works Aviation and Business Air Center.

"We just threw it out on the table," he recalled. "And no one jumped away from the table." An agreement was reached fairly quickly, with the goal of creating a company that could deliver any needed service to business aircraft owners and operators on a national instead of regional basis.

The Jet Works Air Center name made sense, Bryson explained, because Jet Works had been planning to move to Denton. And the Jet Works name was better established with maintenance customers, even though it was known mostly on a regional basis.

At Denton, the 12,000 square foot Jet Works Air Center paint shop is scheduled to open in mid-November for painting up to GIV-sized airplanes. The refurb shop has so far finished nine airplanes, from King Airs to Falcon 20s.

Capabilities that Jet Works brings to Denton include aircraft maintenance, avionics installation and repair, and engine maintenance, including service centers for the Pilatus PC-12 and Piaggio Avanti turboprops. "There are so many things about Jet Works and Business Air Center that complement each other," Bryson said.

"We're ready to take the next step and do something on a larger scale," said Wayne Ostrander, one of the founders of Jet Works Aviation. The new larger maintenance hangar will accommodate up to two Gulfstreams, Challengers, or Falcons plus the smaller jets that are Jet Works's meat and potatoes. Making the new facility more attractive to customers will be crew rest areas, customer office space, conference rooms, a reception area, and plenty of shop and lab space for maintenance and avionics work.

Business Air's Wayne Cecil is CEO of the new Jet Works Air Center and Bryson and Chris Hoskins are division presidents. Bryson is responsible for modifications, paint, and interior work, and Hoskins will oversee avionics and maintenance activities. Paint shop veteran Mark Haggard, who used to run the paint operation at Dallas's KC Aviation, will be in charge of the new Denton paint facility.

Bryson is confident that Jet Works Air Center will be successful. "We know that we can make customers happy," he said, "by providing a good product at a good price. Everybody wants value for the dollar. You don't have to be the cheapest guy on the block to be valuable. If we're going to do it, we don't want to halfway do it."