Western Aircraft To Double MRO Footprint

Looking to broaden the types of aircraft it maintains, repairs, and overhauls as well as meet the current demand for its services, Greenwich AeroGroup subsisidary Western Aircraft is expanding at Boise Airport (BOI) in Idaho with the construction of a 93,000-sq-ft facility that will double the size of its footprint.

The new facility will comprise a 52,000-sq-ft hangar and 40,000 sq ft for avionics and interior and finish shops, as well as administration offices.

Western Aircraft, which also operates a full-service FBO and offers new aircraft sales, charter, and parts, currently occupies eight buildings and hangars totaling 90,000 sq ft on 18 acres at the southwest corner of BOI. “The business has been growing pretty steadily here at Western to the point where we basically have just flat run out of space at this facility,” said Western v-p and general manager Austin Shontz. “While we’re looking at our future and trying to analyze what product lines to continue to grow into, our analysis pointed us to Gulfstream products and Cessna Citation products. With that and the current space shortage we had, we said, ‘Okay, it’s time to add [more space].'”

The company also sees the new facility as a means of boosting its aircraft interiors work. “As we get additional product and larger product, we’re seeing a big demand for interior work on these things,” Shontz said. “We’re going to have new paint booths put in, new finish booths put in, numerous things to support that effort.”

Western expects to add 100 more workers with the expansion, which is expected to be complete in May 2021. Its MRO operation currently employs about 125.

The MRO is an authorized service center for Dassault Aviation, Embraer Executive Jets, Pilatus, and Piper, and it also provides authorized service for Beechcraft King Airs, Daher Kodiaks, and Cessna Caravans. “We’re also doing a tremendous amount of Citation work,” said Western director of sales and marketing Kerry Heiss. He added that Western recently hired a key lead from Textron Aviation’s Sacramento, California service center.

Over the past couple of years, Western has been doing some work on large-cabin Gulfstreams. “Our limiting factor on that is just hangar space,” Heiss explained. “That’s a big part of the impetus for building this new hangar,” Shontz said the new hangar will accommodate up to five or six G650s. “We looked at the market…and that’s how we ended up going that route,” said Shontz, who before joining Western spent 16 years at Gulfstream.

Western currently provides MRO services on the Citation 525, 550, and 560 series including the Excel/XL, Heiss explained. With the expansion Heiss expects Western to expand its Citation service to include the 680 series.

Shontz noted that it’s an “ongoing discussion” in terms of Western pursuing a more formal means of MRO recognition with Gulfstream and Textron Aviation. “Neither one of them really has a formal [authorized service center] program to date but my plan has been trying to get them to understand the benefits of having us as part of their team on both of those product lines,” he added.