A ground-breaking ceremony will be held Wednesday for a charter and aircraft maintenance business at Gainesville Regional Airport.
RD Air Services' new facility will provide repair and electronics work for for small planes. It will also help the company expand its service managing private planes that can be offered as charters, said Scott Branham, administrative coordinator for RD Air.
"It opens up options for local aircraft owners," he said.
The $2.5 million facility will feature 6,000 square feet of office space, 24,000 square feet of hangar space and a 50,000-square-foot ramp. It is expected to be finished in the next eight months, and is being built next to the Eclipse Aviation center off Waldo Road.
Gainesville airport CEO Allan Penksa said the new business will provide needed space and services for small planes at the airport. He praised the company's use of private money to build the facility, as compared to other places at the airport that have used public subsidies.
"This gets then some real nice, first-class accommodations that they're building themselves," he said.
RD Air started providing a charter service in February 2006 with a Cessna 414 airplane that it owns. The company has since expanded to managing planes for four private owners, who allow the planes to be rented as charters when they're not being used.
"It's a good marriage — we provide exactly what they need and we reduce their cost of ownership," Branham said.
The company largely serves business customers, Branham said, but also provides planes for trips to the Caribbean and University of Florida football games.
The company provides the only international flights offered at the Gainesville airport.
Costs vary by the type of plane, length of trip and other factors. As an example, a one-day flight to Atlanta on the company-owned plane costs about $3,020 — or $432 a seat if all seven seats on the flight are filled.
RD Air Services marks the third major project in the past two years for services involving small planes. Eclipse Aviation built a center for maintenance of the small jets it produces. DayJet converted a hangar to an operations center for Eclipse jets that it uses for its air-taxi service.
RD Air provides retail maintenance and avionics diagnosis and repair. Branham said the latter service, which involves fixing radio and navigational equipment, is now provided only at St. Augustine, Orlando and other airports outside the area.
RD Air provides 14 jobs at the airport. The new facility is expected to create 12 new jobswith an average salary of $45,000 a year.