AUBURN — Airport officials hope to buy the large hangar housing the Lufthansa Teknik Group renovation of a World War II-era aircraft to save money.
“It’s a little money up front, but long term, it’s going to be better for everyone if we do it this way,” said Rick Lanman, manager of the Auburn-Lewiston Municipal Airport. “We’re trying to cheapen things up a bit for the airport.”
Lanman said the airport leases the hangar from Nobility LLC for $250,000 per year. The airport then subleases the hangar to the Lufthansa group. The local group has been working since 2008 to rebuild a World War II-era Lockheed Super Constellation in the hangar.
Lanman is proposing to have the airport pay Nobility $2.2 million to buy the hangar outright. The airport is owned by the two cities, and they would split the cost of the purchase equally.
Councilors in both cities will be asked to fund the purchase as part of their fiscal year 2014-15 spending plan.
Lanman said the change would save the airport money in the long run.
“We’re just trying to make it cheaper for the airport to operate so we can reduce our burden on the taxpayer,” Lanman said. “That’s really all we are trying to do.”
The Constellations were fixtures at the Auburn airport until December 2007, when the German company bought them.
Lufthansa announced a partnership with the Twin Cities airport right away to renovate at least one of the planes to flying condition at the airport, and work on the $3 million hangar began right away.
Lufthansa and the airport cut the ribbon on the 50,000-square-foot hangar in August 2008 and the company began rebuilding the aircraft.
Lanman said he did not expect Lufthansa to leave the area anytime soon.
“They are still working on the Constellation and they are still going strong with that,” Lanman said. “To our knowledge, they have no other plans but that. We have agreements that last through the next two years, at least.”
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