KAILUA-KONA — Air Service Hawaii plans to break ground Monday on a new facility at the Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport at Keahole, bringing two new terminals and a new hangar to the local airport.
The company, which started in 1948, operates at six airports throughout the state and has had a presence in Kona going back 25 years. The company’s Kona base is located toward the south ramp in the area designated for general aviation.
“What we’re hoping to achieve with our development is to provide a facility that the market deserves and to provide for the first time ever, a hangar that’s capable of providing storage to the largest business jets currently in service,” said Air Service Hawaii president Shaen Tarter.
A press release from the company outlines the slate of amenities the new facility will bring to the airport, including a full-service kitchen, 4,900-square-foot lounge and dining area as well as a 2,200-square-foot open-air terminal. There will also be green spaces and a dog park for its customers around the facilities.
The big change, Tarter said, will be the 38,000-square-foot hangar, allowing Air Service Hawaii to accommodate larger aircraft.
Tarter outlined three typical categories of operators that operate business jets that would be served by the new facility.
Those include private entities that own and operate their own private aircraft as well as charter companies and fractional operators, companies like Flexjet and NetJets that offer their customers part ownership of private aircraft.
The Air Service Hawaii project is being designed and built by Nicholson LLC and wholly funded with company capital, Tarter said. The project will be completed in phases, Tarter said he expects the full project to be complete by January 2020.
“This will improve the airport and what the airport has to offer,” Tarter said. “And certainly will provide a much nicer and more capable facility for the clients that we serve now and in the future.”
Air Service Hawaii is currently one of two fixed base operators at the local airport along with the Orlando-headquartered Signature Flight Support.
Citing Department of Transportation records, Tarter said the area has seen somewhere between 1,050 and 1,090 overseas landings into Kona annually since about 2007, split between the two operators.
Plans are also in the works for a new fixed base operator, the Kona Jet Center. That project, being developed by AV8 Partners, is expected to include a 36,000-square-foot hangar and a 50,000-gallon above-ground fuel facility.
A bill currently making its way through the Legislature would authorize the Department of Budget and Finance to issue up to $50 million in special-purpose revenue bonds to assist in planning, design, construction, equipping and operation of those facilities. The Senate Committee on Ways and Means recommended the bill be passed with amendments on Feb. 19.
A representative of AV8 Partners previously said it would only use as much capital raised through the bonds as it needs, and that investors are looking at investing directly with the company.