Through the first nine months of this year, Cirrus reported more than $360 million in sales. “The demand for our products over the past 12-15 months has grown and has continued to remain strong, and so we’re looking for options to grow our workforce and our facilities base,” he said. “It would be a win-win for both of us,” he told the News Tribune.Ĭirrus faces a welcome challenge, according to Kowalski. The Cirrus SR-22, a single-engine piston airplane, is shown in flight. If Cirrus indeed decides to lease space inside the base, Fleege doesn’t expect the company to fully cover those carrying costs, but he said, “It would reduce the bleed.”įleege said the company is considering up to a two- to three-year lease and told DEDA commissioners the arrangement could soften the authority’s losses at the base while simultaneously providing support for a growing local business. Fleege earlier estimated that carrying costs for the largely vacant building range between $50,000 and $60,000 per month. The company is owned byĬirrus Aircraft co-founder tells story of growth, landing in Duluth on new showĭEDA owns the cavernous former Northwest/AAR maintenance base, and continues to lose money every day the facility sits empty, due to its sizable overhead costs. The company also has pre-assembly production in Grand Forks, North Dakota, as well as research, training and delivery facilities around the nation.Įarlier this year, Cirrus reported it employed about 1,900 people company-wide, with most of its workforce (1,300 employees) based in Duluth, where its headquarters remain. Kowalski said Cirrus is currently looking to fill about 200 positions, including more than 130 in Duluth. “They’re taking a good thoughtful approach, and I expect we’ll know more in the next couple of weeks,” Fleege later told the News Tribune. Their interest in the base appears to be more than passing, according to Chris Fleege, director of Duluth’s division of planning and economic development, who said company staff and engineers have spent a more than a few weeks scoping out the facility and developing prospective layout plans.įleege informed members of the Duluth Economic Development Authority of the ongoing talks with Cirrus on Wednesday. “We are looking at several different options to expand our capacity to produce aircraft,” he said, acknowledging that the maintenance base is under consideration by company management. to service commercial aircraft, but that businessĪs the pandemic threw airlines around the world into a tailspin.Ĭirrus is in immediate need of both more space and more workers, said Ben Kowalski, vice president of marketing. In recent years, the facility had been used by AAR Corp. Cirrus Aircraft, Duluth’s largest manufacturer, continues to grow, and it’s running out of room.īut the mostly-vacant former Northwest Airlines maintenance base in Duluth could provide the airplane maker with some temporary breathing room as it looks for a longer-term solution.
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