JOB CREATION AT THE CRESTVIEW INDUSTRIAL AIRPARK

ATTENTION PLATINUM READERS:
Jobs, Jobs, Jobs, and more Jobs. This is just a precursor to further job growth at the Crestview Industrial Airpark. As you may not know, this Airport is located on the North side of the City of Crestview and less than 2 miles from the new Shopping Center with brand new move theater, a number of new banks, the only Post Office in town, only High School in town, new Community Center, the only Public Library, the new Chamber of Commerce Building, and much more. Do you see the writing on the board? If not, give me a call.

A Qwest for parts
Plane parts worth more than the whole
March 17, 2011 8:21 AM
Brian Hughes Crestview News Bulletin
With ground recently broken on Qwest Air Parts’ hangar at Crestview Bob Sikes Airport, in a few months, the Memphis, Tenn.,-based company will begin hiring local crews to disassemble aircraft. Qwest doesn’t plan to stop local expansion with just a hangar: a 10,000-square-foot warehouse could also be on the company’s radar, said Operations Manager Charlie Rugen. In technical parlance, “parting out” is what Qwest does, Rugen told the Crestview Area Chamber of Commerce’s Airport Committee. While other airport tenants build, repair and enhance aircraft, Rugen’s company disintegrates them. “We are a supplier of aircraft parts,” Rugen said. “We obtain these parts through the recycling of commercial aircraft. We supply these parts to major airlines all over the world, as well as to brokers.” Qwest, which also has facilities in California and Nevada, hit the ground running when they arrived in Crestview. Seemingly within days, a pair of World Airways DC-10s flew into town, and no sooner were they parked off the Bob Sikes taxiway than temporary crews from the Memphis home office were scrambling over the aircraft, removing valuable instrumentation and hardware. “As soon as he hit the ground, things started to happen,” county Airports Manager Scott Musser said. “This is an airport that’s never seen this kind of activity before.” When each part is removed, if it isn’t already ordered by one of Qwest’s clients, it is listed almost immediately on an online inventory locator. As airplane models age and manufacturers stop milling parts, the components Qwest removes become valuable commodities for companies that still fly those models, Rugen said. “As the parts or engines become more scarce, the aircraft could be worth more as parts than an entire aircraft,” he said. “Everything you can hear and see in an aircraft will disappear. The rest is recycled for scrap metal.” Airport neighbors and tenants won’t have to face a junkyard of leftover airplane hulks, Rugen assured. Once the parts and components are removed, a recycling contractor will remove any remaining insulation and fluids, then chew the hulk up into smaller pieces and remove it. “Part of our contract with those companies is to remove all insulation and clean up any fluid that’s dropped,” Rugen said. “Their operation is a clean operation,” confirmed Airport Committee chairman Brad Hall, vice president of maintenance for Emerald Coast Aviation, the airport’s fixed-base operator. Airport officials said Qwest’s 22,000-square-foot hangar should be completed at the end of the summer. The company’s five-year goal is to dismantle eight to 12 aircraft a year in Crestview using a staff of 10 to 15 people, Rugen said. The 5-10 year plan is to disassemble as many as 15 aircraft a year with a staff of 15-20. While Qwest’s future in Crestview is bright, Rugen confessed the tinkerer inside of him is sometimes conflicted. “These aircraft are only 30 years old,” Rugen said. “As a guy who’s never seen a toaster oven he didn’t want to fix, it’s really heartbreaking to see these planes fly in and get turned into scrap.”