Wayne T. Price

FLORIDA TODAY

A Romulus, Michigan aircraft maintenance company is moving its headquarters to Melbourne where it will lease the 80,000-square-foot hangar last used by MidAir USA at the Orlando Melbourne International Airport.

The Melbourne Airport Authority approved the lease with Aeromod International LLC on Monday. The lease begins April 1 and it's expected to bring in nearly $647,000 in annual revenues for the airport over the 10-year lease.

It's unknown right now how many jobs Aeromod's location to Melbourne will mean for the area. The company is not only moving here but also expanding its existing business operation. The company could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Two years ago, airport officials approved building the hangar, on the southeast corner of the airport for MidAir but the company’s growth plans never materialized as originally projected.

First Aeroflot, Russian's top commercial carrier, absorbed rival Transaero — MidAir's No. 1 customer — in a move that consolidated the carriers. Those acquisition talks held up payments to MidAir for work on the Transaero Boeing 747s at the airport. MidAir then ran into cash-flow problems. The Transaero aircraft are still parked at the airport with only minimal maintenance work taking place on the planes.

And in April 2015, William V. Moore, president of Midair USA, died of an apparent heart attack while vacationing in Daytona Beach.

Last fall MidAir filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of New York in Utica, where the company had been headquartered.

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The new commercial lease arrangement with Aeromod International does not directly involve the Transaero aircraft but there is a possibility that the company could be selected to make the aircraft airworthy for their ultimate removal from the airport.

The judge in the MidAir bankruptcy case, on Monday, approved a request to separate or "uncouple" the four Boeing 747s parked at the airport from further claims by the bankruptcy trustee, said Roy Kobert, a bankruptcy lawyer for GrayRobinson who is representing the Airport Authority.

That will allow the aircraft's ultimate owners - mostly Russian-based financiers - to work with the airport officials in quickly removing the aircraft from the airport apron outside the hangar, and all their related engines and parts inside the structure, before April 1, in time for Aeromod to take possession of the hangar.

And last week the bankruptcy court also ruled that the airport is eligible to collect at least two months' back rent, Kobert said, which could come to nearly $120,000, though a specific amount has not been decided.

Kobert said more money is owed in back lease payments from MidAir and that issue likely is going to be discussed at another bankruptcy hearing on March 8 in upstate New York.

Contact Price at 321-242-3658 or wprice@florida today.com. You can also follow him on Twitter @Fla2dayBiz.