Everett-based Aviation Technical Services is expanding out of state with a maintenance base — and nearly 600 new jobs — at Kansas City International Airport.
The aviation maintenance and overhaul firm announced the plans Thursday. But the company isn’t moving from Washington, it just didn’t have room to expand at its base at Paine Field, ATS spokeswoman Nicole Allard said Friday.
ATS also has a Moses Lake facility, which opened in late March. It currently has about 1,000 employees between the two Washington locations, she said.
The company will invest about $7 million in a 607,000-square-foot facility at KCI’s Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul Base over the next five years, according to a news release from the Kansas City Area Development Council.
The company was founded in 1970 and occupies a high-value niche handling maintenance and repair work on nearly any plane in the sky.
The new location will allow ATS to expand its customer base and better serve existing ones.
“We plan to continue to grow in new locations that support this model,” ATS President and CEO Matt Yerbic said in the news release.
Yerbic and a group of aviation investors bought ATS in June.
The company aims to begin operations in Kansas City by next spring, with plans to hire 540 new employees and 40 contractors. It will handle more than 150 aircraft a year when fully operational.
Material from the Associated Press was used in this post. Dan Catchpole: 425-339-3454; dcatchpole@heraldnet.com.
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