Aircraft firm to set up £8.5M centre of excellence at Glasgow Prestwick
An aircraft maintenance firm is bringing £8.5 million in investment to Glasgow Prestwick Airport .
An aircraft maintenance firm is bringing £8.5 million in investment to Glasgow Prestwick Airport .
Chevron Aircraft Maintenance says it will establish a world-class centre of excellence'' for aircraft engineering, maintenance and training at the South Ayrshire airport.
It will create up to 82 jobs, 67 of which are highly-specialised and skilled positions.
The Manchester-based company expects to increase turnover from £9.6 million this year to £19 million by 2021.
Holyrood Economy Secretary Keith Brown said: The company's investment, which is being supported by our economic development agency Scottish Enterprise, underlines their commitment to Scotland and is great news for the local Ayrshire economy.
This development will bring many new and highly-skilled jobs to the Prestwick area. I wish the team every success with the new venture and look forward to hearing of their achievements.''
After a tour of hangar 747, where Chevron is now located at the airport, Mr Brown met project engineer Simon Yeardley, who is originally from Ayrshire and has worked in England since 2012.
Supported by a regional selective assistance grant of £2 million from Scottish Enterprise, the project, which will be operational early in 2017, follows increased customer and market demand.
The airport provides a large space for the firm's line maintenance support operations, including a maintenance and overhaul facility, a training school, an aircraft decommissioning site and on-site office and workshop.
Neil Morris, managing director of Chevron Aircraft Maintenance, said: The airport is in an excellent location at the midway point of the Great Circle Route making it a convenient stop-off point for the many aircraft that have existing flight planning over the airport.
The facility will enable the Chevron group to handle a large range of aircraft and we hope that we can offer additional benefits to Glasgow Prestwick's existing customer base across passenger, cargo, military, executive and general aviation.''
Glasgow Prestwick Airport chief executive officer Ron Smith said: Chevron will bring in additional revenue for us through this lease but we also hope that this will provide us with an additional selling point for passenger and cargo airlines, and other aviation customers including executive, military and general aviation to operate services to and from Glasgow Prestwick Airport.''