Bangor aircraft corporation expanding irrespective of dip in enterprise final 12 months
3 min readIt has now been additional than a decade given that C&L Aviation moved its headquarters just about 10,000 miles from Australia to Bangor.
And whilst CEO Chris Kilgour acknowledges that the COVID-19 pandemic has been a bump in the road right after yrs of expansion, it isn’t stopping the plane upkeep organization from completing several new jobs that will grow its footprint in Bangor and likely develop its pipeline of upcoming workforce.
C&L purchased four acres of metropolis-owned land at 395 Griffin Rd. last year, along with the former Magnificent Function Centre building. It has due to the fact converted that creating into a maintenance store for plane components, full with paint booths and gear for engine inspections. It has also concluded constructing a 27,000-sq.-foot warehouse on the home for parts that never match in its principal storage place at Bangor Global Airport.
The company based at Bangor International Airport, which repairs and converts private plane owned by firms and individuals, also has two new assignments less than construction at the airport. A 12,000-sq.-foot constructing where by C&L mechanics will repair aircraft interiors will be up and functioning someday in the summertime. And a 5,000-sq.-foot addition to a person of its four hangars at the airport will possible be total by the stop of May perhaps.
Kilgour, a indigenous of Christchurch, New Zealand, experienced lived in Australia for two a long time when he relocated C&L from that country to Bangor in 2010. The company’s income have given that grown sixfold, reaching $90 million in 2019.
Yet the COVID-19 pandemic drove 2020 product sales down 25 percent from 2019 figures, Kilgour reported. Though fears of commercial air travel throughout the pandemic led to greater non-public jet use amongst people with the means for it, Kilgour said, that has translated into much less plane servicing careers for the enterprise, as aircraft owners are employing their personal planes fairly than grounding them for servicing.
C&L presently has additional than 180 personnel, Kilgour stated. That is a lot more people than the business experienced on staff in 2019, but less than it had very last year.
Although 2020 meant a drop in company, it experienced some vivid places, Kilgour mentioned. With Maine having a person of the most affordable COVID-19 infection charges in the state, C&L was ready to carry on most in-individual functions. It also didn’t see any COVID-19 outbreaks in just company partitions.
The business will also get started a mechanic apprenticeship method in April. The method will use apprentices on a entire-time basis as they function toward obtaining mechanic certification from the Federal Aviation Administration.
Kilgour has said in recent several years that the lack of neighborhood applications to teach aircraft mechanics had hampered his community recruiting and, possibly, the company’s capability to do company in Bangor. The lack of Maine packages to educate plane mechanics carries on to make advancement difficult, Kilgour stated, but he believes the apprenticeship software will enable.
The organization previous yr also saw a new company line arise in reaction to the pandemic. It noticed requests to remodel professional aircraft into private planes with fewer seats, so those people on board could hold their length from others and reduce the possibility of spreading COVID-19.
“Invariably, persons want that. I just really do not assume they’ve been prepared to shell out the further dollars to get it,” Kilgour reported. “It may perhaps fade a small, but when persons get utilized to it, it is hard to go back again.”
Company has also picked up in latest months as prospects prepare for a summer time journey year that’s possible to be a lot more sturdy than previous year’s as vaccinations decide up.
Kilgour claimed he is hoping that 2021 can be a year of renewal for his enterprise as it proceeds to strive towards its intention of $100 million in gross sales by 2025.
“I imagine above the summer months, points will just open up close to the earth, and continue on to get better,” he reported.
