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Cirrus Aircraft announced recent plans to fill 12,000 square feet of space at Kissimmee Gateway Airport with its operations. SUBMITTED PHOTO
Prolific aircraft manufacturer Cirrus Aircraft announced plans this month to provide concierge-level flight training, aircraft maintenance, aircraft management, and sales for its top-selling SR Series piston and Vision Jet aircraft at Kissimmee Gateway Airport.
Cirrus will be leasing an existing 12,000 square foot maintenance hangar on the west side of the airport in the Business Airpark. The hangar was recently vacated by long-time airport business Warbird Adventures, as part of a planned relocation to South Carolina.
The new Cirrus location will employ up to 70 people performing flight training, aircraft maintenance, aircraft sales, and ownership management, according to the Kissimmee Director of Aviation, Shaun Germolus.
“Cirrus will be able to tap into the Kissimmee Airport’s extensive aviation education and job training businesses, like Aviator College and Avionica, to provide an initial workforce and additional, ongoing training for their staff,” said Belinda Kirkegard, Economic Development Director for the City of Kissimmee.
Kissimmee Airport came up on Cirrus’ radar several years ago, when they were searching for property to begin serving their customers in the southeast U.S. Knoxville, Tenn. was eventually selected for that facility.
“This Central Florida investment will help our economy become more resilient. In addition, this will provide high-value, high-wage jobs,” said Kissimmee City Mayor Olga González, in a Cirrus press release.
While no city or state economic incentive funds are involved in this project, Cirrus has an option to further develop a complex of aviation facilities on eight acres of airport property off of Dyer Boulevard. The level of high-wage job creation associated with that development may qualify for incentives.
Cirrus Aircraft has a unique, lifesaving design, as the actual aircraft itself has a large parachute that can be deployed during aircraft emergencies. To date, pilots have “pulled the ripcord” over 100 times, resulting in over 200 pilots and passengers making it safely to the ground.
The company is also enjoying success with its relatively new single-engine Vision Jet, dubbed by the industry as the first “personal” jet aircraft on the market. The jet can seat five adults and two children, and also enjoys a similar airframe parachute system as the SR 20 series aircraft.
The Kissimmee facility will begin servicing customers in early 2022, according to Cirrus, and has already posted job openings for its new Kissimmee operation, found here on its recruiting website.
In other Gateway Airport news, long-term tenant Jr. Davis Construction, Inc., a heavy highway and roadway contractor, is expanding its facilities at the airport. The company will be constructing a permanent office building, maintenance facility, and storage lot, utilizing portions of airport property formerly used by the Kissimmee Police Department for their training and firearms range. That function was relocated to the City’s relatively new joint Police and Fire Public Safety Training Center on Jack Calhoun Drive, to make way for the expanded Hoagland Boulevard project recently completed by Osceola County.
