AUBURN — In another sign of progress toward turning the financial woes of the Auburn-Lewiston Municipal Airport around, the airport has signed a new, five-year master lease for Building No. 9, also known as the “white hangar,” that will see two aviation businesses relocate to Auburn.

Sunbird Aviation Maintenance is relocating from the Brunswick Executive Airport and Chickadee Aviation is relocating from the Portland Jetport as soon as next week. The two companies already work closely together and Chickadee Aviation, which is primarily a flight school, will sublease from Sunbird, which is an aircraft maintenance and repair operation.

Chickadee Aviation owner Ron Wood said Friday that they are excited about the move and plan to move four of their planes to Auburn in the coming days. Chickadee has five flight instructors on staff, and they will also manage the flight simulator housed in Building No. 9, which is underused. The general public will still have access to the flight simulator, but its use will be managed by Chickadee.

“It’s such an asset to have a flight simulator,” Wood said, pointing out that some functions of the simulator count toward required flight times and on bad weather days, pilots-in-training can work on their skills when weather keeps their planes grounded.

Chickadee Aviation is a Federal Aviation Regulations Part 61 flight training school, offering private pilot, instrument and commercial flight training. The company also runs scenic flights out of Portland and the Rangeley Municipal Airport, which it will continue to do.

The hangar is on the east ramp of the airport and is 8,000 square feet with an additional 1,000 square feet of office and classroom space.

Airport Board Chairman Jonathan LaBonte said seven planes that have been leasing space in the hangar on a month-to-month basis were offered a similar deal to move across the runway to Hangar No. 5, which is for lease or sale. LaBonte said five pilots have accepted that offer while two others will relocate to other airports.

“I hate to lose any tenants,” LaBonte said, “but we have to move towards collective gain.” The airport has been losing money on the white hangar between utility costs and low rental rates. The airport’s lease with Sunbird will bring in $1,700 a month and the aviation company will be responsible for utilities and general maintenance costs, further reducing the airport’s financial exposure.

The airport is still actively pursuing a long-term lease or sale of Hangar No. 5, but for now will section off half the hangar for the five month-to-month tenants and make the other half available for overnight or transient aircraft to bring in extra income.

The airport still owes $1.6 million to the cities of Lewiston and Auburn for Hangar No. 5, which was built in 2008 for the Lufthansa Lockheed Starliner project, which lasted until 2018. The cities deferred the payments of the hangar for one year, but the airport will be expected to resume annual payments of $115,000 in the next fiscal year.

LaBonte said flight schools purchase a lot of fuel, which will boost fuel sales at the airport that have been steadily rising over the past six months, through the combined efforts of Dirigo Aerospace Solutions and a renewed emphasis on customer service at the airport.

“There’s a good culture growing among pilots and people that do business here, and it’s good because the airport governance and management doesn’t have to be central to that,” LaBonte said. “Aviation businesses see this as a place to come and grow.”

There is also interest in creating more space to store aircraft, which the airport is pursuing as well. “We have some private parties that are interested in building. So now it’s obviously continuing to push forward to see if we can make a deal happen for private hangar development,” LaBonte said, adding, “I’m bullish.”

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