Millardair hangar gets new operator
About 40 jobs expected to come to local airport
WATERLOO REGION — Toronto-based Penmore Holdings Inc. is taking over the remaining 46 years on the massive Millardair hangar lease at the Region of Waterloo International Airport.
Chartright Air Group will relocate its Canadian Agusta Helicopter Service Centre from Toronto’s Pearson airport and upcoming helicopter maintenance repair operation to the region.
“There was interest by more than one party,” said Rob Horne, the region’s commissioner of planning, housing and community services. “It’s a vote of confidence in the regional economy … let alone the airport.”
It’s expected over time up to 40 jobs will come to the region from the hangar site changing hands.
Regional councillors voted Wednesday to approve the deal. Millardair owned the hangar but the region owns the land it’s built on and had to give the OK for the sale of the hangar to Penmore Holdings.
Officials said they were not sure how much revenue the new lease, fuelling and landing fees would bring in, but airport general manager Chris Wood said lease fees are about $47,000 more annually than the $19,000 Millardair was paying. “It will be increased for sure,” Wood said. The deal closes April 24. Officials didn’t comment on whether there was difficulty landing a new tenant at the 55,000-square-foot hangar owned by Millardair, a name made famous after Dellen Millard was charged with the murder of three people, including his father.
One of the three alleged victims was Tim Bosma, a 32-yearold Ancaster family man who vanished after taking two strangers on a test drive of the truck he was selling in 2013. His badly burned remains were found a little more than a week later on Millard’s farm in North Dumfries.
The Millardair firm originally planned to repair jetliners at the regional airport hangar and started negotiations with airport officials in 2010. That never came to be. About $65,000 in public money was committed by the airport for extra asphalt to accommodate the big jetliners Millardair was supposed to bring. In 2013, Waterloo Regional Police found evidence the hangar was being used as a chop shop.
It will now house Chartright, one of Canada’s largest providers of corporate jet charters that manages of fleet of 36 corporate aircraft.
Last week, American Airlines cancelled Chicago flights over several days from the Breslaubased facility after a technical glitch caused the weather station to fail.
Earlier this year, WestJet announced an expansion of its daily flights to Calgary and in January, the airport said it set a record with more than 145,000 passengers in 2014 — an increase from about 139,000 in 2013 and 121,000 in 2012.