Sherpa Air has set its sights on expanding into business aviation maintenance following November’s opening of a 30,000-sq-ft hangar at Georgetown County Airport.
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Georgetown, South Carolina-based Part 135 operator Sherpa Air has set its sights on expanding into the business aviation maintenance and aircraft management markets following November’s opening of a 30,000-sq-ft hangar at Georgetown County Airport. Primarily involved in supporting Department of Defense special missions since its establishment in 2021, the company relocated to its new East Coast headquarters from Myrtle Beach, where it launched Part 135 operations in September last year with a de Havilland Dash 8-300 it acquired and modified for special mission support to the DoD and other government partners.
Now in the process of submitting its Part 145 application with the FAA, the company has already begun work with “multiple partners” to execute its first maintenance contracts, the first of which it expects to sign this quarter.
Sherpa Air director of aviation programs Paul Handakas told AIN that outsourcing maintenance on its Dash 8 to multiple companies met with unsatisfactory results. “The results were the same across the board—behind schedule and over budget,” he said. “We decided to bring our maintenance in-house and established a mobile maintenance base in Myrtle Beach while we waited for our hangar to be completed.”
After securing land adjacent to the new hangar in Georgetown, Sherpa Air expects to start construction on a second, similarly sized hangar in mid-2024 and a third in 2025. Now employing a highly experienced team of 12, Handakas sees its employee ranks expanding to 30 by the end of next year.
“Though tough lessons, we learned that quality and dependable maintenance services sources were limited and that we had a team that could execute,” he explained. “Leveraging our military heritage and commitment to service, we will provide maintenance services that exceed the level of service in the industry today.”
Georgetown, South Carolina-based Part 135 operator Sherpa Air has set its sights on expanding into the business aviation maintenance and aircraft management markets following November’s opening of a 30,000-sq-ft hangar at Georgetown County Airport. Primarily involved in supporting Department of Defense special missions since its establishment in 2021, the company relocated to its new East Coast headquarters from Myrtle Beach, where it launched Part 135 operations in September last year with a de Havilland Dash 8-300 it acquired and modified for government special mission support.
Now in the process of submitting its Part 145 application with the FAA, the company has already begun work with “multiple partners” to execute its first maintenance contracts.
Sherpa Air director of aviation programs Paul Handakas told AIN that after outsourcing maintenance on its Dash 8 to multiple companies with unsatisfactory results, “The results were the same across the board—behind schedule and over budget,” he said. “We decided to bring our maintenance in-house and established a mobile maintenance base in Myrtle Beach while we waited for our hangar to be completed.”
After securing land adjacent to the new hangar in Georgetown, Sherpa Air expects to start construction on a second, similarly sized hangar in mid-2024 and a third in 2025. Now employing a team of 12, Handakas plans to expand to 30 by the end of next year.