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Aviation Company Won’t Expand in Kernersville
By: David A. Lombardo
Caption: The manufacturing and repair operations of Limco Airepair will remain in Tulsa, Okla., rather than move to Kernersville, N.C., where Piedmont Aviation Comp
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The manufacturing and repair operations of Limco Airepair will remain in Tulsa, Okla., rather than move to Kernersville, N.C., where Piedmont Aviation Component Services is located. “After careful consideration we felt the prudent thing to do is just stay put,” Bob Koch, CEO of Tulsa, Okla.-based Limco Airepair, told AIN. The company provides component maintenance and overhaul for airline and general aviation aircraft. The consolidation and $5.8 million expansion slated to begin this fall was announced earlier this year touting the proposed creation of 120 jobs in the Kernersville area. Koch said the decision to remain in Tulsa was driven by two issues. “We received a fairly strong reaction from our customers who were concerned about the technology transfer,” he said. “The other issue was that after further in-depth study we realized the actual anticipated costs would be significantly higher than originally estimated. When you stack that against a 12- to 20-percent decline in revenues and seat miles in the air carrier industry right now, it just didn’t make sense.”