Aircraft services to expand at LI MacArthur

There hasn't been a lot of good news about Long Island MacArthur Airport lately. Passenger traffic is down, and Southwest Airlines, the airport's major carrier, has no immediate plans to expand at the Ronkonkoma-based facility.

But the skies over MacArthur are not all cloudy.

Charleston, S.C.-based Hawthorne Global Aviation, one of the country's largest providers of services to aircraft, said it is planning a major expansion at the Long Island airport. In January, Hawthorne acquired ExcelAire, a small competitor at MacArthur.

David Rimmer, ExcelAire's president, said Hawthorne plans to add up to 32,000 square feet of hangar and office space at MacArthur and will demolish a building next to ExcelAire's facility to make way for a new building.

The new structure will be able to accommodate some of the world's largest corporate jets, including the new Boeing Business Jet, the Gulfstream g650, the Falcon 7X and the Bombardier Global series. No details yet on the cost of the project or when it would begin.

"Both the [Hawthorne and ExcelAire] names will be out" on the new building, said Rimmer. "It's a major expansion, both in the physical size of the building" and in economic development for Long Island, he said.

Joe Loccisano, president of the Long Island Business Aviation Association, said each corporate jet based on Long Island adds five jobs -- an aircraft crew of two or three and mechanics -- and $1 million annually in revenue, which companies pay in airport fees, fuel and services. Loccisano said he expects more corporate jets to be based at MacArthur in the near future.

"There's already a lot of corporate jet traffic" at Westchester County Airport and at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey. The growth is going to be at Republic Airport in East Farmingdale and at MacArthur, Loccisano said. Long Island officials and aviation companies are lobbying Albany for a sales tax exemption on purchases of corporate jets in an effort to halt jobs and revenue from leaking across state lines.

Tom Croci, supervisor of Islip Town, which operates MacArthur, said Hawthorne's plans are the beginning of an effort to revitalize the airport's west side. Another aircraft-service company, Sheltair, has signed a long-term lease with MacArthur and plans upgrades.