W Aviation expansion at Lauderdale airport takes off

Rendering of W Aviation development at Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport.
Rendering of W Aviation development at Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport.

W Aviation launched a major expansion of its aircraft parking, maintenance and refueling operation at Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport.

W Aviation, a fixed-base operator at 5901 Northwest 24 Way, plans to build hangar and ramp space to accommodate owners and operators of private jets as large as the 19-passenger Gulfstream 650.

A unit of The Windsor Group, W Aviation has done business as a fixed-base operator at city-owned Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport for about 18 months.

The parent company Windsor Group also conducts charter flight operations at the airport through a unit called Windsor Jet Management. Windsor also does maintenance work at the airport though its Mach-1 Jet Services division.

W Aviation broke ground Wednesday at Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport for a $13 million project to build two 20,000-square-foot hangars, each with 5,500 square feet of attached office space. The project also will entail a 155,000-square-foot ramp expansion for parking aircraft.

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That will be the first phase of W Aviation’s expansion on the airport’s northern border along Cypress Creek Drive, scheduled for completion in the middle of next year.

Phase two, scheduled to finish in 2017, will entail construction of more hangar space and a 24,000-square-foot passenger terminal with a lobby, fitness center, café and other amenities.

The two-phase W Aviation expansion will be the first aviation construction project north of the airfield in 10 years.

W Aviation in June opened a fixed-base operation at  Simón Bolívar International Airport near Caracas, Venezuela, which could boost air traffic between Fort Lauderdale and the South American country. [Sun-Sentinel] — Mike Seemuth