Moving on: Hawks’ crucial decisions in coming year C1
SUNDAY, 02.08.2015
Relief in the works
●
EVERETT, WASHINGTON
●
WWW.HERALDNET.COM
●
$1.50 (HIGHER IN OUTLYING AREAS)
AIRLINERS’ PIT STOP
New interchange at I-5 and Highway 529 would bypass railroad crossing — and has funding boost from Strategic Investment Board By Chris Winters Herald Writer
See INTERCHANGE, Page A4
GRAMPA’S LOVE
Bus stop shelter created in memory of grandma. Good Life, D1
ANTI-VAXXERS
Looking to history for the real cost of foregoing vaccines. Viewpoints, B7
Classified . . . . E2 Crossword . . .D4
1232778
Dear Abby. . . .D5 Horoscope . . .D4
Mechanic David Veth works in the cockpit of an airplane at Aviation Technical Services last month.
PHOTOS BY GENNA MARTIN / THE HERALD
When commercial planes need maintenance, repair or overhaul, Aviation Technical Services at Paine Field is in demand By Dan Catchpole Herald Writer
EVERETT — The airplanes were packed inside a nondescript hangar at Paine Field like jigsaw puzzle pieces. They were being taken apart, inspected, repaired if necessary, refitted and reassembled. Inside a Boeing 737, everything — seats, siding, insulation, lavatories and galleys — had been removed. In the back, two mechanics installed new floor beams. In the cockpit, all the flight displays, gauges and dials had been removed, leaving wire bundles hanging out. A mechanic, sitting on a wooden box where a pilot’s seat had been, inspected the bundles. Outside, a mechanic straddled one of the single-aisle jetliner’s engines, which had been uncovered for examination. It was just another day at Aviation Technical Services at Paine Field. The company provides maintenance, repair and overhaul services, known in the aviation world as MRO, for commercial airliners. It is the state’s second-largest aerospace employer, and one of the biggest MRO companies on the West Coast. Passenger airplanes must be regularly inspected and repaired. When an airline buys or leases a previously used airplane, the interior is overhauled and replaced with its own interior and seating layout. Airlines carefully choose an airplane’s layout to fit their business model. Aviation Technical Services (ATS) has
Lottery . . . . . .A2 Moneywise. . . E1
Movies . . . . . .D4 Obituaries. . . . B4
Mechanic Jeremy Santino cleans engine fan blades of a plane being overhauled at ATS.
expanded in recent years. In 2013, it opened a facility in Moses Lake in Central Washington. Last year, it opened a Midwest facility in Kansas City, Missouri, and it bought Texas Air Composites, a Fort Worth-based MRO firm that specializes in composite materials. “We need to spend a little time digesting,” said Gabe Doleac, senior vice president for strategy and commercial programs at ATS. But “certainly in the next five years or so, we plan to grow here and elsewhere,” he said.
Outdoors. . . . .D6 Viewpoints . . . B7
Unfocused 59/48, C8
Across the world, the MRO market for commercial air travel was worth $57.7 billion in 2014, and it will grow to $86.8 billion in 10 years, according to the Aeronautical Repair Station Association. Last year, the MRO industry in Washington was worth an estimated $848 million, according to the association. Much of that growth is expected to come from Asia, where air travel has been rapidly expanding. ATS, which turns 45 this year, began See AVIATION, Page A10
VOL. 114, NO. 363 © 2015 THE DAILY HERALD CO.
SUNDAY
MARYSVILLE — An ambitious project to build a new freeway interchange at the south end of Marysville got a boost recently from a little-known government agency. The state Freight Mobility Strategic Investment Board has pledged $5 million to the city of Marysville to help pay for construction for the interchange. The project would allow traffic from downtown Marysville to get on or off I-5 using Highway 529. That would bypass the busy Fourth Street interchange and the railroad crossing. The Strategic Investment Board helps fund projects that increase freight capacity or mobility in the state, or which offset the effects of those increases to communities. City leaders hope the contribution from the board will make
6
42963 55555
7