Story ID: 402
Meridian Now Running on Left Coast
By: Curt Epstein
Caption: Long a fixture at New Jersey’s Teterboro Airport, the company has expanded to the Golden State with a new FBO.
Word Count: 300
Meridian has expanded its Teterboro, N.J.-based aviation services company all the way across the country, with this month's opening of its second FBO, located at California’s Hayward Executive Airport. The Epic Fuels-branded location is the second service provider at the San Francisco Bay Area airfield. It features a 6,300-sq-ft terminal and office building, with a passenger lobby offering a lounge, coffee bar, business center, conference room, pilot lounge equipped with recliners, a snooze room, pilot briefing room, shower and locker facilities, kitchen, on site car rental and crew cars.
The $10 million facility, which will also serve as a West Coast base for the company’s charter management fleet, has a 30,000-sq-ft hangar capable of sheltering the latest class of ultra-long-range business jets and 3.5 acres of ramp. Aircraft maintenance support is available as the location has a full-time licensed A&P mechanic to service Meridian’s charter aircraft as well as transients.
“We are extremely pleased to be able to announce the opening of our new FBO, Meridian Hayward, at this year’s NBAA Convention,” company CEO Ken Forester told AIN. “The genesis of this project began four years ago, and now it’s no longer a vision, but a reality. Hayward is the keystone of our long-term growth strategy, which also includes a new hangar project happening in Teterboro, and the continued expansion of our charter fleet.” 
The company, which has been a fixture at Teterboro Airport since its founding in 1958, has a 50-year lease on the Hayward property and is planning a second phase of construction there to add another 12,000-sq-ft terminal, two 40,000-sq-ft hangars and more ramp space to bring the facility to more than 10 acres. An official grand opening is slated for December 15.