Contract to bring 100 jobs

COEUR d'ALENE - Horizon Air's decision to outsource its aircraft heavy maintenance work is giving a boost to the Kootenai County economy.

Empire Aerospace, a division of express-freight shipper Empire Airlines, was recently awarded a long-term contract to complete heavy maintenance and aircraft modification work for Horizon.

Tim Komberec, the company's CEO and president, said this means the creation of 100 new jobs at Empire's 50,000-square-foot facility at the Coeur d'Alene Airport in Hayden.

"We're in the process of adding 75 new direct employees to the maintenance organization, and about another 25 contract employees, 100 overall," Komberec told The Press.

Empire's two organizations already support 250 jobs, 230 of them are direct employees.

The contracted work for Horizon involves completing heavy major overhauls of Horizon's aircraft, and was previously done by Horizon's own line mechanics at Portland International Airport.

James Mayer, a writer for The Oregonian, reported earlier this month that Empire expressed interest in hiring some of the 100 mechanics whose Portland jobs were eliminated, but it would mean those workers would have to relocate.

"We have interviewed some, and I believe we have hired some," Komberec told The Oregonian.

The average pay for aircraft mechanics and service technicians in Kootenai County, according to the Idaho Department of Labor's most recent occupational wage survey, is $44,000 per year.

On Empire Aerospace's website there are openings posted for inspectors, lead mechanic technicians and maintenance technicians. All positions require an FAA mechanics license.