Bangor aircraft enterprise increasing even with dip in company final calendar year
It has now been additional than a ten years since C&L Aviation moved its headquarters approximately 10,000 miles from Australia to Bangor.
And while CEO Chris Kilgour acknowledges that the COVID-19 pandemic has been a bump in the street immediately after several years of development, it isn’t stopping the plane routine maintenance company from completing a number of new assignments that will expand its footprint in Bangor and most likely develop its pipeline of potential workforce.
C&L bought 4 acres of town-owned land at 395 Griffin Rd. last 12 months, together with the former Breathtaking Function Heart constructing. It has due to the fact converted that setting up into a mend shop for plane components, total with paint booths and tools for motor inspections. It has also finished creating a 27,000-square-foot warehouse on the property for parts that really do not match in its principal storage place at Bangor Global Airport.
The company centered at Bangor Worldwide Airport, which repairs and converts non-public aircraft owned by firms and men and women, also has two new projects under development at the airport. A 12,000-square-foot setting up the place C&L mechanics will maintenance plane interiors will be up and working sometime in the summer. And a 5,000-square-foot addition to a single of its 4 hangars at the airport will very likely be total by the close of May possibly.
Kilgour, a indigenous of Christchurch, New Zealand, had lived in Australia for two a long time when he relocated C&L from that country to Bangor in 2010. The company’s gross sales have considering the fact that grown sixfold, achieving $90 million in 2019.
Still the COVID-19 pandemic drove 2020 product sales down 25 % from 2019 figures, Kilgour stated. Though fears of business air journey during the pandemic led to increased non-public jet use among the individuals with the usually means for it, Kilgour claimed, that has translated into much less aircraft routine maintenance jobs for the business, as aircraft proprietors are making use of their personal planes fairly than grounding them for maintenance.
C&L presently has extra than 180 employees, Kilgour reported. That is more people than the organization had on team in 2019, but less than it experienced previous yr.
Though 2020 meant a decrease in small business, it had some bright places, Kilgour said. With Maine owning a single of the least expensive COVID-19 an infection premiums in the state, C&L was capable to go on most in-particular person operations. It also did not see any COVID-19 outbreaks inside enterprise walls.
The firm will also commence a mechanic apprenticeship application in April. The program will utilize apprentices on a total-time foundation as they function towards getting mechanic certification from the Federal Aviation Administration.
Kilgour has reported in current years that the lack of neighborhood courses to practice aircraft mechanics experienced hampered his local recruiting and, potentially, the company’s means to do business in Bangor. The deficiency of Maine packages to teach plane mechanics carries on to make growth hard, Kilgour claimed, but he believes the apprenticeship software will aid.
The enterprise past year also saw a new company line arise in response to the pandemic. It noticed requests to remodel professional aircraft into personal planes with less seats, so all those on board could maintain their distance from other individuals and cut down the possibility of spreading COVID-19.
“Invariably, people want that. I just do not believe they’ve been ready to pay the additional dollars to get it,” Kilgour explained. “It may possibly fade a tiny, but as soon as persons get employed to it, it’s challenging to go back again.”
Enterprise has also picked up in latest months as consumers prepare for a summertime vacation year which is probably to be extra robust than previous year’s as vaccinations select up.
Kilgour explained he is hoping that 2021 can be a 12 months of renewal for his company as it continues to try toward its target of $100 million in profits by 2025.
“I consider more than the summer months, factors will just open up close to the entire world, and proceed to get greater,” he stated.