New Facility To Open In 2009

Cessna Aircraft Company announced Monday it will construct a new Citation Service Center at the Williams Gateway Airport (KIWA) in Mesa, AZ and relocate tooling and employees from the company’s Long Beach, CA service center. The new facility will open in a phased transition by the first quarter of 2009.

"Customer preference and our business need to expand made it necessary for us to consider a move, and Mesa’s government and business development leadership made our decision to come to Williams Gateway fairly easy," said Mark Paolucci, Cessna senior vice president for Customer Service. "With the new center in Mesa, we will have plenty of room to expand as our business grows, our employees will enjoy a high quality of life, and the Phoenix area will prove popular with our business jet customers coming here for service."

Cessna will build a 100,000 square-foot facility –- more than twice the size of its Long Beach facility –- on part of its 15-acre tract adjacent to three 10,000-foot runways. Cessna will also have a 124,800-square foot aircraft ramp, more than 10 times the size of its current Long Beach ramp.

The Cessna Citation Service Center network consists of 10 company owned centers in the US (including Long Beach) and Europe, and more than two dozen authorized service centers around the world. Cessna’s customer service group is consistently ranked as an industry leader in a number of independent surveys.

Williams Gateway is a former Air Force base that closed in 1993 and was redeveloped as an aerospace center, an education, research and training facility, and reliever airport for Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.

Cessna will join a number of aerospace companies at KIWA, such as Boeing and Pratt & Whitney, and educational facilities including Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and Chandler-Gilbert Community College.

FMI: www.cessna.com