Aircraft Firm’s Expansion to Give Boost to Airport

A Georgia-based aircraft manufacturing company said Wednesday that expansion of its West Coast operations at the Long Beach Municipal Airport will produce 80 new jobs for the region.

Gulfstream Aerospace Corp., which specializes in producing and servicing business aircraft, has leased an additional 64,000 square feet of hangar space at the airport, and plans to break ground today on a separate facility for painting aircraft.

Facility general manager Ken Kelley said the expansion will allow Gulfstream, an 11-year tenant of the airport, to speed delivery of its Savannah, Ga.-built aircraft to its West Coast, Mexican and Pacific Rim customers.

“This allows us to paint our own aircraft here instead of having to fly them somewhere else to paint them,” Kelley said. He added that the extra hangar space also will provide an opportunity to perform more maintenance jobs.

Airport manager Chris Kunze said Gulfstream’s plans represent an important accomplishment as the airport tries to regain the momentum that was lost several years ago when a lawsuit over airport noise levels prompted many airlines to leave the city-owned facility. The suit, which was settled in 1995, limited airport traffic to 41 flights a day, only a fraction of which are being booked.

The airport has received much attention from City Hall recently as it attempts to invigorate tourism. While the past two years have seen hopes rise and fall as various start-up airlines attempted to gain a foothold in Long Beach, prospects were renewed earlier this year when American Airlines resumed flights from the airport after a three-year hiatus.