Swiss-based aircraft maker picks SRQ for major expansion

Long positioned as primarily a commercial passenger airport, Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport is quickly becoming an economic development engine with its growing aviation industry ecosystem.

On Monday, the Sarasota Manatee Airport Authority Board of Directors approved a 40-year lease with Stans, Switzerland-based Pilatus Business Aircraft for two parcels totaling just more than 17 acres. That’s where the company plans to invest at least $40 million and create some 350 jobs with an average wage of $80,000 per year. 

Pilatus is a global designer and manufacturer of aircraft, simulators and cutting-edge systems for pilot training. Over the next three years, it plans to build more than 120,000 square feet of office, customer service, hangar and aircraft assembly space over two phases. 

Design work is already underway.

In addition to a new maintenance facility to serve its Western Hemisphere customer base, Pilatus will assemble its PC-24 twin-engine business jet at SRQ. The jets range in price from $9 million to more than $12 million. 

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“This development will provide hundreds of thousands of dollars of revenue to the airport authority, which incidentally has no taxing authority and is totally self-sustaining from our business operations,” said SMAA Chairman Robert Spencer during Monday’s announcement. “This facility will provide tremendous employment and economic benefit to our community and further solidifies the growing aviation ecosystem being expanded, both on the airport land and in the surrounding area.”

That ecosystem was one of the factors that pushed SRQ past competing airports in Texas, the Carolinas and in Pilatus’ U.S. home base of Colorado. 

In addition, Pilatus President and CEO Thomas Bosshard said the company places heavy emphasis on apprenticeship programs that provide a pipeline of employees starting in their mid-teens, which dovetails with new education opportunities surrounding the airport.

Pilatus employs some 2,500 in Switzerland with a steady flow of about 140 apprentices participating in earining-while-learning programs. 

August saw the opening of the new Team Success School near the airport, admitting 625 students in grades 6-12 who are embarking a path toward aviation careers. Also planned in collaboration with SMAA is a new Manatee Technical College airframe and power plant (A&P) school. 

“This development will merge beautifully with the educational expansion efforts that the Airport Authority has made here,” Spencer said. “Our children, our grandchildren, will have high-paying, skilled opportunities right here at SRQ. With the educational pipeline right here, they won't have to go away to get their education. We couldn't be more excited and pleased for this community.”

In addition to Pilatus, Elixer, a France-based maker of small single-engine prop planes, will soon begin building its new facilities at SRQ. Previously, SMAA also extended leases for aviation parts manufacturer ASG; fixed-base operator Sheltair; Boca Aircraft Maintenance for a new facility; and other commercial ventures surrounding the airfield.

In Phase I, Pilatus plans to invest at least $20 million to build approximately 40,000 square feet of hangar, 28,000 square feet of office and maintenance shop space and 126,000 square feet of ramp. Bosshard said the company plans to move into that space by the end of 2026, bringing 43 jobs or more. In addition to sales and administration, that phase will be dedicated to maintenance operations to support its fleet of 2,250 aircraft based in North and South America.

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Phase II will begin concurrently with an investment of another $20 million to build a minimum of 60,000 square feet of enclosed aircraft assembly and 63,000 square feet of adjoining aircraft parking apron and connecting taxi lanes, all becoming operational in 2027 and creating as many as 300 more jobs.

Bosshard indicated the jobs number is a conservative estimate and is likely to go higher.

“You're looking at almost $30 million just in wages on an annual basis, so it’s a tremendous economic opportunity, a tremendous tool for this airport, and one that fits in with our aviation ecosystem,” SRQ President and CEOP Rick Piccolo told the SMAA board prior to approving the lease, adding that, at build-out, land lease payments to SMAA will be about $400,000 per year.

The Pilatus campus will be built on undeveloped land in the north quadrant of the airfield, all in Manatee County. 

In addition to the two-year competitive effort to bring Pilatus here, Piccolo said the Sarasota-Bradenton community sold itself to the company.

“When you're bringing someone in to buy a $10 million product, you want the community to reflect the high-end product that you're selling,” Piccolo said. “I don't think there's another community in the United States that reflects a higher value.”