Aircraft service company JD Aero Technical is marking its third expansion in under a decade with an extension of its hangar and office space that will allow it to serve new clients and create new jobs at the Sault Ste. Marie Airport.
Costs for the project, which will get underway this summer, are pegged at around $6 million. In April, the airport announced it had secured $250,000 from the city’s Economic Development Fund, and the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corp. is pitching in another $1.8 million.
Don McNabb, one of JD Aero’s co-owners, said the expansion was precipitated by demand after the company secured two new clients, WestJet Encore, a regional airline based out of the Calgary International Airport and a wholly owned subsidiary of WestJet, and Horizon Airlines, a subsidiary of Seattle-based Alaska Air Group, Inc.
“Once we picked up the work from WestJet, and then Horizon came along, it accelerated quicker than we had planned on, but it’s in line with where we wanted to go,” he said.
JD Aero provides maintenance, overhaul and repair services to airlines from around the world, specializing in Dash 8, CRJ and ERJ series aircraft. Its sister company, JD Aero Maintenance, provides airline maintenance, management and inspection services.
The hangar expansion project will be done in three phases. During the first phase, the stores and office area will be relocated, and a new planning room will be added. A tender has already been awarded for phase one and construction was expected to start in mid-May.
The second phase of the project will involve the expansion of existing hangar space. That work is expected to get underway in mid-June.
“We’re going to extend it out another 80 feet, and make it slightly wider, so we’ll be able to accommodate another airplane and a hangar,” McNabb said.
That will make room for four airplanes, one more than JD Aero can currently accommodate.
In the third phase, the parking lot and apron area will be expanded, and JD Aero will enter into a partnership with AVJet, based out of Québec, to supply jet fuel to the airport and its own customers. The tender for that contract will be awarded in the early part of June.
“The timeline is to have it basically all finished by Nov. 1,” McNabb said.
Adding 10,000 square feet to JD Aero’s existing hangar and office space will bring the company’s total footprint to 80,000 square feet. And the partnership with AVJet means JD Aero, in addition to being an MRO facility, can also be classified as a fixed base operator (FBO).
“So that’ll allow clients flying into the Sault — business jets coming in, people passing through — a place to hangar their airplane, a place to get fuel, a lounge to relax in,” McNabb said. “It’ll be a port of entry for business people coming into the Sault as well.”
It’s been a remarkable period of growth for the company — which began in 2007 with McNabb, co-owner Julian Chin, and vice-president and director of maintenance Steve Peterson — in a former NorOntair hangar that had sat unused for years and was in serious need of upgrades.
Growing the business again means JD Aero will be hiring. The business currently employs 50 full-time people, and that will increase to about 75 or 80 full-timers, McNabb said. During the wintertime, when JD Aero brings in contract workers, the company will be running at about 120 employees in total.
“A good portion of that (hiring) will hopefully be (done) by the fall,” said McNabb, noting it could take longer to find the right people to fill key positions.
McNabb said the expansion will allow JD Aero to do more work for its current clients, and further secure a base of work for JD Aero, but the company will also likely pick up some additional work during the summer months when business tends to be slower.
