Duncan Aviation Expands Its Full-Service MRO Locations In Michigan, Nebraska

Examples of substantial growth for business aviation continue to remain prominent—this time for Duncan Aviation, the largest privately owned business jet service provider in the world.

The company has announced plans to build additional hangar space at its existing MRO locations in Battle Creek, MI (BTL) and Lincoln, NE (LNK), with a total combined investment estimated to be $66 million.  

“The demand for the safety and flexibility that business aviation travel provides has continued to increase, as has the average size of business aircraft,” says Jeff Lake, president of Duncan Aviation. “This results in increased demand for the hangar space required to complete requested airframe, engine, interior, paint and avionics modifications for the business aircraft fleet. Looking to the future, we know that in order to meet current customer requests and needs, Duncan Aviation will need more hangar facilities.”

As far as just how much more hangar space will be added—the company says they will build a 46,000-square-foot hangar with 32-foot-high hangar doors at both service locations. An additional 62,000-square-foot, two-floor wing for storage and backshops will be added at each location as well.

Working alongside Tectonic Management Group, the aviation facilities builder, the new hangars and buildings will include light harvesting, radiant floor heating, LED lighting fixtures with sensors and automatic dimming, among others. According to Frank Jacobsen, vice president with Tectonic, the new buildings and systems will perform more than 25% better than standard energy codes. 

The Battle Creek, MI and Lincoln, NE locations represent two out of three full-service locations that Duncan Aviation operates, with the third being in Provo, Utah, which completed an expansion in early 2020.

“Although the post-pandemic uptick in demand confirmed that expansion is the right thing to do for the business and the way best to support our customers, Duncan Aviation operates on a 10-year plan. Our plan was to expand in both Lincoln and Battle Creek in the next year or two well before the pandemic and any of its market changes occurred,” says Lake. 

Site preparation for both locations will start in spring 2022, with a completion in Michigan expected by summer 2023 and completion in Nebraska by fall 2023. As a result of these expansions, the company predicts they will need to add 65-75 new employees at each location.

By the project’s end, the Lincoln location will have 769,000 square feet of total space, while Battle Creek will have 443,00 square feet of total space, making the new hangars the largest Duncan Aviation has built to-date.