Eaglejet's quick-fix airplane repairs now being offered in Baltimore

Jerry Siebenmark  
Wichita Business Journal
March 1, 2002

A Newton-based aircraft maintenance business started by three former Bombardier Learjet workers has opened an office in Baltimore.  The high level of business jet traffic on the East Coast and demand from customers prompted Eaglejet Aviation to expand its operations to Martin State Airport, a general aviation airport near Baltimore.

Cochise Rounds, the company's president and CEO, says earlier this month Eaglejet moved three workers there and began operations in a 2,200-square-foot hangar.

It is the first of several expansions the company expects to make in the coming years, he says.

Quick-turn maintenance
Eaglejet was started in June 2000 by Rounds, Jamie Pegg, executive vice president, and Andy Rusch, chief financial officer.

The three owners worked together at Bombardier Learjet. The company's seven other employees worked there, too.

Major customers for Eaglejet are FlexJet, Bombardier Aerospace's fractional ownership company; and TravelAir, the charter and fractional ownership arm of Raytheon Aircraft Co., which is selling the unit to Cleveland-based Flight Options Inc.

Eaglejet does "quick-turn" maintenance, fixing a single mechanical or avionics problem on an airplane that allows it to return to flying immediately.  Eaglejet does some maintenance at its 12,000-square-foot hangar at Newton City/County Airport and in Baltimore. It also will fly mechanics and technicians, via an Eaglejet technician who also is a licensed pilot, to anyplace an airplane breaks down.

"It's usually just a day trip, out and back," Rounds says.  The company also does work on "green planes," newly manufactured, unpainted airplanes that need final maintenance and an avionics inspection before delivery to a customer.

The company has done work on three Bombardier Global Express green planes for Santa Barbara, Calif.-based Jet Center, and has more airplane work scheduled there in March.

Rounds says he is in talks to lease a hangar in Santa Barbara and expand the company's business there. Possible future expansion sites include Mexico, Las Vegas and San Francisco, Rounds says.

In its first year in business, Rounds says Eaglejet did nearly $1 million in airplane work.  "They've been an excellent addition to the airport," says T.W. Anderson, Newton airport manager.

Peers say Eaglejet does a good job and has worked hard to develop its niche of fixing stranded airplanes.  "They do high quality work," says Skip Madsen, president of Executive Aircraft Corp. EAC and Eaglejet have an agreement that allows both companies to refer work to one another, Madsen and Rounds say.