Feb. 03--United Airlines and the private flight service firm Signature Flight Support Corp. will spend an estimated $36 million building a new hangar and charter-passenger terminal at Newark Liberty International Airport in time for the 2014 Super Bowl, company officials said Thursday.
United plans to develop a 132,000-square-foot, aircraft maintenance hangar that will support the new wide-body Boeing 787 Dreamliner, said Jim Keenan, senior vice president of technical operations at United. The hangar will cost roughly $25 million to build on a 3-acre parcel, Keenan said.
The company expects to break ground on the hangar this summer and complete work by mid-2013, said Robert Ruzich, managing director of technical operations at United.
Signature Flight Support, a so-called fixed-base operator that handles private flights into Newark, agreed last year to replace its passenger terminal and make ramp renovations as part of a 10-year lease extension. Work on the $11 million project will begin by March or April and is expected to be complete in November 2013, said Maria Sastre, Signature's chief operating officer.
"For many companies interested in doing business in New Jersey, we are a window to this region, and therefore the service we provide is of the utmost importance," Sastre said of the new terminal.
Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno touted the new projects at a press conference in Newark Airport on Thursday as examples of Gov. Christie's "turnaround" -- an uptick of private sector investment expected to bring new jobs and revenue to New Jersey.
"These companies have invested in the future of New Jersey," Guadagno said.
The new United Airlines hangar will create roughly 210 jobs worth a combined $12 million in wages, while Signature Flight Support's project is estimated to create 80 jobs worth $4 million in wages, Guadagno said.
Most of the initial jobs created by United will be in connection to the construction of the new hangar, Keenan said.
When complete, the new hangar will then employ as many as 70 people, most of them conducting aircraft maintenance, United spokesman Rahsaan Johnson said.
Sastre said her company's expected new positions at Newark "are good, sustainable jobs," also primarily involving aircraft maintenance.
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Copyright 2012 - The Record, Hackensack, N.J.
