Mesaba Airlines will construct an $11.8 million maintenance facility at Des Moines International Airport. The new facility will include four aircraft bays and handle scheduled maintenance for the carrier’s fleet of 50-seat Bombardier (BBD) CRJ200 and new 76-seat CRJ900 aircraft. Mesaba expects the Des Moines maintenance facility to be completed by the third quarter of 2008. It will add more than 30 jobs to the local economy. Construction on the new facility is expected to begin later this year.
“Today’s announcement means a great deal to the employees of Mesaba Airlines,” said John Spanjers, Mesaba president. “In recent months, the airline has worked hard to position itself for a successful future and the addition of the CRJ900 and the new Des Moines maintenance facility helps to secure this success.”
Several locations were considered for the facility, but the Northwest Airlink carrier’s Des Moines flight schedule, combined with the city’s proximity to Mesaba’s Minneapolis/St. Paul, Detroit and Memphis hubs and the airport infrastructure already in place, made Des Moines the ideal location for Mesaba to perform its scheduled aircraft maintenance, said the airline..
Mesaba took delivery of its first Bombardier CRJ900 regional jet aircraft earlier this year and will have a fleet of 36 CRJ900 aircraft by the end of 2008. In April, Northwest (NWA) also announced a new 300-person reservations call center that will open in Sioux City later this year.