AAR will open a new 520,000ft2 (48,309m2) maintenance facility in Lake Charles, Louisiana at Chennault International Airport.

The maintenance centre, which will be able to operate an aircraft as large as an Airbus A380, will have space for up to seven widebody or 10 narrowbody aircraft.

An 118,000ft2 expansion will also be added to the building, says the maintenance firm.

AAR will open the facility with a staff of 250 people and plans to add another 500 people to the facility by 2017, it says. It has not specified a date for when the building will open.

The new maintenance centre will be AAR's sixth MRO facility, adding to existing locations in Indianapolis, Miami, Oklahoma City, Duluth, Minnesota and Hot Springs, Arkansas. It also has an engineering arm in Singapore and has signed a letter of intent to form a commercial aircraft maintenance centre in Ulyanovsk, Russia.

AAR logged 4.6 million man-hours across its facilities in 2012, a 33% year-over-year increase from 2011.

Source: Air Transport Intelligence news

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