From a 125,000-square-foot facility at the county airport in Cleveland, Ohio, Nextant Aerospace is taking remanufacturing to new heights.
The business jet remanufacturer converts aging Beechjet 400A planes – most planes already have 4,000 to 7,000 hours in service when Nextant receives them – into like-new low cost business jets. It strips the planes down to the shell and replaces 90% of the wires in the aircraft.
Since late 2011, the company has delivered 26 aircraft to customers in six countries and, at the start of 2013, had a sales backlog of more than $175 million.
And on Monday Nextant debuted an updated version of its product, the 400XTi, which come July will be the standard Nextant offering.
The $5 million aircraft features an auto-throttle and APU and is lighter and more fuel-efficient than its predecessor thanks to a number of improvements, including the addition of wing tips and the composite interior cabin.
“I think the XTi…is a great example yet again of what this company can do,” said Sean McGeough, president of Nextant during an open house Monday at the company.
Nextant employs 200 people and in July plans to hire another 46 to 95 people on its operations side because of increased demand.
Barring avionics, Nextant reuses 95% of the Beechjets for its finished aircraft, which have a range of 2,003 nautical miles.
“There’s not very much replaced unless it’s broken,” said John Spisak, executive vice president of operations for Nextant.
The company relies largely on local suppliers, with 80% to 85% of its suppliers in Ohio, Spisak said.
Nextant is owned by Directional Aviation Capital, which owns a number of various aviation companies, including Flight Options – Nextant’s biggest customer.
