StandardAero Summerside expanding, adding 80 jobs

StandardAero Summerside formerly known as Vector Aerospace is getting a 30,000 square-foot expansion that will bring an additional 80 jobs to the facility.

Jeff Poirier, vice president and general manager for StandardAero, sayswork currently done in Winnipeg will now be transferred to Summerside.

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"Summerside's reputation in the industry for great quality, great turn time and superb customer service allowed them to transfer this work that was formerly done in Winnipeg to Summerside with very little concern," Poirier said.

Roughly 450 people work for StandardAeroin Summerside and the 80 new jobs will includepositions for welders, machinists, gas turbine technicians, customer service agents, technical engineers and material handlers.

"It's a full-level expansion of the entire facility, entire company," he said. "This is not just a good news story for Summerside, this is a great news story for Prince Edward Island as a whole."

B.C. plant closing

The move is part of a major restructuring of StandardAero.

The company is winding down operations at its Richmond, B.C., facility, which will close by June 2019. Helicopter engine services currently performed at Richmond will be relocated to StandardAero's Winnipeg facility.

Work currently being done in Winnipeg will move to Summerside, and Summerside will become the company's centre for turboprop engine maintenance, repair and overhaul.

"We have had an integration team looking at how we can leverage the best capabilities of the two companies together and it was pretty self-evident to us that Summerside and P.E.I. was the best place for us to put our Turboprop Centre of Excellence," said Peter Turner, president of airlines & fleets with StandardAero.

"Here in Summerside, we actually repair and overhaul around about 800 engines a year. The transfer of work that is going to be coming from Winnipeg is probably about another 250 engines a year."

Slemon Park Corporation will put out a request for tender in the comingweeks to construct the expanded facility,Poiriersaid, with the construction process to begin soon after.

Work on the expandedfacilityis expected to finish by the end of the year.

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