Sep. 19--The boom in the sale of business jets can be heard in Columbus today.
Cessna, a Wichita, Kan.-based aircraft manufacturing company, will announce a new $25 million Columbus plant -- an announcement that will mean 150 new jobs paying an average of $30,000 a year.
"We don't have the capacity at the current facilities to produce the parts required to meet the demand of increased production of business jets," Cessna spokesman Doug Oliver said.
Cessna, which employs nearly 600 people locally, has two plants in Columbus, both on 30 acres at Columbus East Industrial Park off Macon Road. The new facility will be on a 40-acre tract three miles away at a new industrial park being developed on property the city acquired in a land swap with Fort Benning.
The company makes single-engine planes and business jets at facilities in Columbus, Independence, Kan., and Wichita, Kan. The current Columbus expansion is being fueled by the success of the company's line of business jets, especially the Citation Mustang, a lightweight aircraft. Critical Mustang components are made and assembled in Columbus, including the empennage, or back end of plane, and many of the control panels.
This year, Cessna will make and sell 44 Mustangs. Next year, the company hopes to make 100 and increase that to 150 by 2009. All of the planes are presold, Oliver said.
"We don't build spec airplanes," Oliver said. "Some of the models are sold two and three years out. We will probably have one of our best sales years this year. That will put us further sold out in the future."
Today's announcement is to come at an afternoon groundbreaking ceremony at Muscogee Technology Park, with Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue in attendance. It will be the second time in two months an aerospace company with a Columbus plant has announced new jobs. In July, Precision Components International, a major global supplier in the aerospace and medical industries, announced a $53 million expansion that will create 100 jobs over the next five years.
The aerospace industry that includes Cessna, PCI and Pratt & Whitney, employs more than 1,400 people in Columbus.
The plans put Cessna on a path "for continued growth and development within the aerospace industry in our community," said Mike Gaymon, president of the Greater Columbus Chamber of Commerce.
The Chamber of Commerce and Development Authority of Columbus have been working for nearly two years to land the Cessna expansion. The path was paved in August when the authority granted $25 million in industrial development bonds for Cessna. Those bonds will give the company a 50-percent break in property taxes over the next 20 years.
Becca Hardin, chamber executive vice president of economic development, was the chief recruiter in the Cessna project. She credited Columbus Technical College and the QuickStart job training program with helping to land the expansion.
"They're an employer of choice," Hardin said. "Columbus Tech has designed specific training programs for Cessna. That was a key part of this deal. We worked closely with Columbus Tech and had to convince Cessna we could supply the work force."
Cessna entered the Columbus market in 1996 when Textron Inc., Cessna's parent company, shifted an aerospace parts production facility it already had here under the Cessna name.
"What we saw then was they were going to come in here and shut the plant down and find a way to turn it around," Gaymon said. "It wasn't going to stay like it was. They brought in the right management. They put in the right equipment and the right training programs in place. All of those pieces and parts put it on the trajectory it's on today."
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