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Tuesday, July 10, 2007
First Coast Aerospace starts operations at JIA
Jacksonville Business Journal

A new aircraft maintenance and repair company has opened at Jacksonville International Airport, starting with a contract to replace seats on the most recent airline to extend service here.

First Coast Aerospace Inc. will retrofit 10 Airbus A318s and 49 A319s for Frontier Airlines, which began flying nonstop between Jacksonville and Denver last month. The contract requires First Coast Aerospace to turn each plane around in 36 hours, with the 59-plane program expected to be complete in 15 months. Besides retrofitting seats, the company will perform ground support operations for Frontier.

"As a startup company, we are thrilled about our relationship with a major carrier such as Frontier Airlines," First Coast Aerospace President Merrill Woods said in a news release.

The company, which incorporated in March, is operating with 12 employees in a 49,900-square-foot hangar leased from one of the airport's general aviation fixed-base operators.

Woods and Gilmer Carter III, First Coast Aerospace's vice president and general manager, have nearly 50 years of combined experience in aircraft maintenance with major airlines and maintenance and repair companies, according to a news release. They have performed maintenance and repair on most commercial aircraft models flying in the U.S. Jacksonville Aviation Authority Executive Director John Clark hailed First Coast Aerospace as "exactly the kind of promising company we want to attract to Jacksonville." Aviation is among the industries most targeted by local economic development leaders.