One Eastern Carolina airport says they’re anticipating the completion of a new addition later this spring that they hope will bring more jobs to the community.
A new hangar is being built at Albert J. Ellis Airport, which will be 12,000 square feet and will be used for maintenance and aircraft storage of corporate, commercial and general aviation aircraft.
The airport says the new hangar will provide a job for a maintenance operator and other mechanics, who will provide maintenance to those stored aircraft.
The airport says the new hangar will help to bring larger aircraft to Onslow County, while also protecting the value of expensive planes.
“Sometimes these aircraft can be as valuable as $50 million, so we want to protect them and keep them out of the weather,” says Chris White, the airport’s director. “This will also provide a dry place for mechanics to do work on the aircraft and to store transient aircraft as we have visitors come in to Onslow County.”
White also says the hangar is part of a public-private partnership. The land for the new hangar was provided by the county and the private company, Skyport Aviation, will run the hangar and the aircraft maintenance operations that come with it.
The airport says the building of the hangar began late last year, but the cold weather has slowed its completion.
The hangar cost just over $800,000 and its be completely funded by Skyport Aviation.
White says it’s expected to be completed this May.