West Star Aviation, which opened a new corporate aircraft maintenance facility at Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport this year, already is planning a multimillion-dollar expansion on the opposite side of the airfield.
The company plans to build a 45,000-square-foot paint facility on a 13-acre parcel that includes the former Air National Guard site on the passenger terminal side of the main runway, said Debi Cunningham, West Star’s vice president of marketing. Also on the site, the aircraft maintenance and equipment firm plans to build a 55,000-square-foot maintenance facility, she said.
West Star said earlier it planned to invest $22.5 million into its current air maintenance facility when it purchased a 40,000-square-foot hangar on the west side of the airport last year.
Cunningham said she expects the new facilities will cost “at least that much or more.”
West Star expects to employ between 225 and 250 people at the airport after the expansion, she said.