Queen Creek Blog

Cessna to Open New Citation Service Center in Mesa, Arizona

Wichita, Kan.,- Cessna Aircraft Company, a Textron Inc. (NYSE: TXT)

company, today announced it will construct a new Citation Service Center at the Williams

Gateway Airport in Mesa, Arizona, and relocate tooling and employees from the company’s

Long Beach, Calif., service center. The new facility will open in a phased transition by the first

quarter of 2009.

“Customer preference and our business need to expand made it necessary for us to

consider a move, and Mesa’s government and business development leadership made our

decision to come to Williams Gateway fairly easy,” said Mark Paolucci, Cessna senior vice

president for Customer Service. “With the new center in Mesa, we will have plenty of room to

expand as our business grows, our employees will enjoy a high quality of life, and the Phoenix

area will prove popular with our business jet customers coming here for service.”

Cessna will build a 100,000 square-foot facility – more than twice as large as its Long

Beach facility – on part of its 15-acre tract adjacent to three 10,000-foot runways. Cessna will

also have a 124,800-square foot aircraft ramp, more than 10 times the size of its current Long

Beach ramp.

The Cessna Citation Service Center network consists of 10 company owned centers in the

U.S. (including Long Beach) and Europe, and more than two dozen authorized service centers

around the world. Cessna’s customer service group is consistently ranked as an industry leader in

a number of independent surveys.

Williams Gateway is a former Air Force base that closed in 1993 and was redeveloped as

an aerospace center, an education, research and training facility, and reliever airport for Phoenix

Sky Harbor International Airport. Cessna will join a number of aerospace companies such as

Boeing and Pratt & Whitney, and educational facilities including Embry-Riddle Aeronautical

University and Chandler-Gilbert Community College.

Artist rendering of the new Mesa Citation Service Center:

http://cessna.com/news/images/CessnaMesaFacility.jpg

Williams Gateway Airport is just 15 minutes from Queen Creek and will be a boost to the Queen Creek economy by providing jobs