Florida-based Professional Aircraft Accessories (PAA) will formally unveil its expanded operation at Space Coast Regional Airport in Titusville during this year’s NBAA show. The FAA/EASA Part 145-certified repair station offers approximately 57,000 sq ft of production space, significantly bolstering the company’s landing gear repair, accessories, instruments and avionics service capabilities.

Company president Robert Bial told AIN the expansion was necessary to handle PAA’s growing list of maintenance and overhaul services for a wide range of aircraft, including the recent addition of complete 192-month landing gear refurbishments on the Bombardier Challenger 604. “By 2009, we realized the next five to 10 years offered the potential for significant growth in the OEM market,” he said, “and we didn’t have the throughput capability at that time.”

PAA broke ground for the expansion last December and in April began the process of expanding its landing gear service area and other departments into the larger facility. “When I joined this company in 1998, we had 10,000 square feet of production space,” Bial said. “I still get goose bumps when I walk through the new building, thinking of where we started.” Bial noted that the company considered relocating its operations, but local support convinced PAA to sign a 15-year lease to remain in Titusville. “It was important to us, and to the community, that the area not lose any more aerospace jobs,” he said, in reference to the depressed job market along the Space Coast following the end of space shuttle operations at NASA. The expansion will eventually add approximately 50 jobs to the area, according to the company.

PAA (Booth No. 2569) will host an invitation-only grand reopening reception tomorrow at 2 p.m. in Titusville. Owned by Greenwich AeroGroup, the company services commercial, corporate and military fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters. –R.F.