Another Milestone Reached As Aircraft Nears Production

Honda Aircraft Company broke ground Thursday on a new Maintenance, Repair & Overhaul facility (MRO) located at the company’s world headquarters at the Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro, NC. The approximately 90,000 square foot building will be completed next year, with occupancy slated by the second half of 2013, prior to the HondaJet aircraft’s entry into service.

Honda Aircraft’s MRO facility will complement the existing network of HondaJet dealers, with all locations delivering the same customer service experience. This new Honda Aircraft MRO facility includes a 24/7 support center to facilitate maintenance for up to 12 aircraft simultaneously. There will be several back shops for composite and sheet metal structures, avionics and interiors; and a customer area with a large pilot's lounge, individual work rooms with conference space, and a flight planning room conveniently situated near the aircraft ramp side entrance.

“We continue to make great strides as our momentum builds toward important milestones from type certification to our most important goal of delivering the HondaJet to customers around the world," said Honda Aircraft Company president and CEO Michimasa Fujino. "This new facility that we celebrate today will play a critical role in supporting and maintaining the HondaJet fleet. I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation to the community and local officials who support this major project.”

Site preparation for the $20 million state-of-the-art MRO began in February 2012, on a 54-acre extension to Honda Aircraft’s world headquarters campus that is home to a state-of-the-art R&D, production and headquarter buildings encompassing over one-half million square feet of space on more than 130 acres. With the addition of the new MRO, Honda Aircraft’s total capital investment for construction in the area exceeds US$120 million.

Fujino said, “It is my commitment to build the best Maintenance, Repair & Overhaul facility to serve the HondaJet customer.”

The MRO facility will also house the Product Support Group whose mission is to support the customer and aircraft after delivery, and administer HondaJet Warranty and Service Plans. The MRO will have a 4,000 sq. ft. environmentally controlled spare parts warehouse.

(Top photo (L-R) Skip Alston, Guilford County Commissioner; Henry Isaacson, Chairman, PTI Airport Authority Board of Directors; Robbie Perkins, Mayor of Greensboro; Keith Crisco, North Carolina Department of Commerce Secretary; Michimasa Fujino, President & CEO of Honda Aircraft Company. Bottom photo artist's rendering of the MRO facility)

FMI: www.hondajet.com