Gulf Avionics, a full-service avionics maintenance and repair operation (MRO), has located its headquarters and operations at the Kerrville/Kerr County Airport in Texas’ Hill Country region, which runs between the state’s central and southern sections. The company will service aviation clients from the greater San Antonio area and plans to create 50 avionics and aerospace jobs in the next five years.
After a year-long site selection process, the MRO chose Kerrville and has moved into 7,000 square feet of space at one of the airport’s hangars.
Gulf Avionics, an official dealer for manufacturers including Garmin, Honeywell, Trans-Cal, and PS Engineering, will be offering inspection and general maintenance assistance to hundreds of aircraft owners and operators as it grows its presence in Kerrville and throughout the Austin-San Antonio corridor, home to 4.5 million people.
The new Kerrville headquarters is now servicing tenants on the field and having customers fly in from nearby areas. The company has started the process of recruiting talent and hiring local employees. The new jobs, specifically the avionics technicians, will earn upward of $75,000 in annual wages, which will infuse more than $16 million into the local economy.
Gulf Avionics is part of a holding company named E.H. Caddis & Co. which also owns Dallas-based RBR Aviation.
Last year, the KEDC announced that Killdeer Mountain Manufacturing, a North Dakota-based Tier-1 aerospace component manufacturer, is moving into a 40,000-square-foot facility at the Airport Commerce Park. The company will be creating 400 jobs, $8 million in capital investment and generating $82 million in economic output to the area.
The Kerrville Airport, Gulf Avionics’ new home, is a public-use aviation facility serving the Hill Country region with a 6,000-foot primary runway and an additional 3,600-foot crosswind runway.
Within a one-hour flight of Kerrville, are more than 1,500 aircraft owners and operators, which is up to five times the same market breakdown for cities of comparable size to Kerrville.
Kerrville’s growing aviation and aerospace cluster is centered around the airport and the Airport Commerce Park, both of which are home to Mooney International Corporation, Dugosh Aviation (aircraft maintenance), the Hill Country Aviation Flight School, Aeromax USA (aircraft appraisal) and Air Evac EMS.
