Rudolph Bell

dbell@greenvillenews.com

A regional airline is eyeing Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport as a location to perform maintenance work on commercial jets, airport officials disclosed Monday.

The Greenville-Spartanburg Airport Commission approved terms for leasing a 45,000-square-foot hangar building to PSA Airlines, a subsidiary of American Airlines that flies under the American Eagle brand.

Scott Carr, GSP’s vice president for commercial business & properties, told commissioners that Dayton, Ohio-based PSA is growing and has been looking for another location in the Southeast to conduct maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) work.

Carr said the airline would use the hangar at GSP to refurbish two commercial jets made by Bombardier – the 67-seat CRJ 700 and the 76-seat CRJ 900.

“These aircraft will be flying in at the end of the day for overnight maintenance and then back out first thing in the morning,” he told commissioners.

Currently, the 2,500-employee PSA operates maintenance facilities at three locations in Ohio as well as Charlotte, North Carolina, according to its Web site. The airline says it operates 110 aircraft and expects to add another 40 over the next two years.

Jenna Arnold, a PSA spokeswoman, declined to answer questions about how many people might work at the proposed GSP facility, how many planes the facility might handle or when it might open. She did say PSA’s board would have to approve any lease before it could become final.

Carr said PSA initially was going to use the hangar to work on the smaller jet only, but realized during a test on Saturday that the hangar was big enough to accommodate work on the larger jet, too.

Carr said the initial three-year term of the proposed lease begins Nov. 1, and the deal would last 20 years if all options are exercised.

GSP spokeswoman Rosilyn Weston said the hangar property, which GSP owns, includes parking spaces for 58 employees.

She said the building was formerly used by Greenville-based Stevens Aviation to conduct maintenance work on Beechcraft’s King Air.

Stevens moved that work to its headquarters location at the South Carolina Technology and Aviation Center in southern Greenville County after GSP exercised its right not to renew a lease with Stevens, Weston said.

Separately, Carr told commissioners he is negotiating lease terms with an air cargo company interested in launching operations at GSP.

He said the company is working with a customer that has a need for daily service from two Boeing 767-300 Freighter aircraft. The planes would fly seven days a week, 365 days a year, Carr said.

Carr said he was in the “final stages” of the lease negotiations.

He said the customer company wants the service to begin as early as Aug. 1, though he’s not sure that’s realistic. He didn’t name the air cargo company or its customer.

On another item, commissioners decided to get more information on the possibility of building a multi-million-dollar pod car system to transport passengers between GSP’s economy parking lot and airport terminal.

Commissioners raised numerous questions after being presented with the latest information on plans to build the personal rapid transit (PRT) system. It would involve driverless, computer-controlled pod cars riding on a dedicated guideway that would be nearly 14 feet high in places.

Information discussed Monday included proposals from a Mexican company called Modutram and a Dutch company named 2getthere.

The Modutram plan would cost about $15.6 million with an annual operating cost of $1.46 million, according to the presentation.

The price tag for 2getthere’s proposal is between $17.25 million and $23.3 million with $1.7 million in annual operating costs.

“I guess the worry that I’ve got is the huge expense,” Minor Shaw, GSP commission chair, said during the discussion.

GSP officials said they're exploring the possibility of securing a $12 million federal grant that would require a $12 million "local match." If secured, the grant would provide $4 million for Clemson University to study how a PRT system could affect traffic congestion, officials said.

Dave Edwards, GSP president, said airport officials plan to travel to Mexico to inspect a pod car system built by Modutram and to Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates to see one developed by 2getthere.