Will Handle Citations
Cessna Aircraft Company's new Orlando, Florida, Citation Service
Center is open for business. Cessna received the new Orlando
Citation Service Center's certificate of occupancy from the city of
Orlando on Thursday and workers began an around-the-clock move on
Friday evening. The new Orlando Citation Service Center began
serving customers on Monday morning.
Located on the west side of the Orlando International Airport,
the new Orlando Citation Service Center is 155,000 square feet. It
replaces the original 47,275 square foot facility, which has served
the southeast United States since 1983. The new Orlando Citation
Service Center operates 24 hours a day. It is designed to
accommodate all Citation models with a full range of inspections,
maintenance, repair, overhaul and other services. It includes
123,000 square feet of hangar space, an expanded aircraft ramp with
underground refueling facilities, environmental control systems
throughout the facility, specially equipped wash bays, customer
courtesy offices, and a fully equipped classroom for advanced
employee training.
Cessna has already made plans to expand the new Orlando Service
Center to nearly 200,000 square feet. The expansion is expected to
be complete in October 2004, and will add a humidity-controlled
paint room and aircraft detailing area.
"We're dedicated to providing customers with the best service in
the industry. This new building is just one of the many indicators
of our customer commitment," said Jim Morgan, Cessna's vice
president of service facilities. "As the Citation fleet grows, it's
important that customers have as much flexibility as possible when
scheduling their aircraft for maintenance. The new Orlando Service
Center triples the amount of space we had at the previous facility,
so we'll be able to work on more airplanes at the same time, and
get customers back in the air sooner."
For approximately six months, the Orlando Citation Service
Center will be Cessna's largest Citation Service Center. But it
will be outsized toward the end of this year, when Cessna opens its
new 447,259 square foot facility (above) in Wichita (KS). Once
open, the Wichita Citation Service Center will be the largest
general aviation maintenance facility in the world.
Cessna now has ten company owned Citation Service Centers and 28
authorized Citation Service Centers. The facilities are
state-of-the-art and capable of meeting all inspection, maintenance
and service requirements for the Citation fleet, which exceeds
4,100 airplanes.