Turbine engine overhauler Standard Aero on Thursday celebrated the ground-breaking of a new 80,000-sq-ft facility at its Winnipeg, Canada headquarters. The new plant adjoins Standard Aero’s existing 55,000-sq-ft GE CF34 repair and overhaul facility and is needed to accommodate growth in the CF34 program. The new section will open by next July and Standard Aero expects to add more employees to perform the additional CF34 work. By the end of next year, the company will add 60 to 120 employees and, if plans pan out, will hire another 150 to 200 by 2014. Standard Aero, now owned by Dubai-based DAE Engineering, launched the GE-authorized CF34 program in 2002. Standard Aero president and CEO Paul Soubry remembers signing the contract with GE at 6:01 p.m. on Sept. 10, 2001, then waking up to the terrorist attacks the next morning and wondering if it had been a wise move. Growth in the CF34 market, both for regional airlines and business aviation, justified Standard Aero’s move to be the first independent GE-authorized CF34 facility and that growth is driving the expansion.