Katie Spill­man, PR Counsel

North­west Flori­da Beach­es Inter­na­tion­al Airport

(727) 236‑0284

katies@​themooreagency.​com

FOR IMME­DI­ATE RELEASE 

His­toric Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment Project Brings 500 New Avi­a­tion Jobs, $107 Mil­lion Cap­i­tal Invest­ment to Bay County

A Part­ner­ship Between ECP, Bay EDA and Florida’s Great North­west Fur­thers Eco­nom­ic Growth in the Region

• IAG Aero Group, for­mer­ly referred to as ​“Project Spin­ner,” to bring $107 mil­lion in cap­i­tal invest­ment and 500 new avi­a­tion jobs to the area. 

• The project involves a total cap­i­tal invest­ment of $107 mil­lion, includ­ing the con­struc­tion of a 120,000-square-foot Main­te­nance Repair and Over­haul (MRO) facil­i­ty and an extreme­ly rare engine test cell facil­i­ty at North­west Flori­da Beach­es Inter­na­tion­al Airport. 

• Tri­umph Gulf Coast has award­ed $25 mil­lion in fund­ing to sup­port the con­struc­tion of the MRO facil­i­ty at North­west Flori­da Beach­es Inter­na­tion­al Airport.

PANA­MA CITY, Fla. (Decem­ber 11, 2024) – Today, North­west Flori­da Beach­es Inter­na­tion­al Air­port (ECP), Bay Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment Alliance (Bay EDA) and Florida’s Great North­west announce a major new eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment project is on the way to Bay Coun­ty. For­mer­ly known as ​“Project Spin­ner,” IAG Aero Group reveals its plans to invest $107 mil­lion in Bay Coun­ty, mark­ing a sig­nif­i­cant mile­stone in the con­tin­ued growth of the Region’s rapid­ly expand­ing aero­space industry.

“Today, we are proud to wel­come IAG Aero Group as our newest com­mu­ni­ty part­ner and thank them for bring­ing this game-chang­ing project to Bay Coun­ty,” said Mark Shel­don, Chair of the Air­port Board of Direc­tors. ​“This mile­stone reflects the unwa­ver­ing ded­i­ca­tion and col­lab­o­ra­tive spir­it of lead­ers from ECP, Bay EDA and Florida’s Great North­west, whose hard work and shared vision have paved the way for long-term eco­nom­ic pros­per­i­ty in our Region.”

A glob­al leader in the com­mer­cial aero­space indus­try, IAG Aero Group is a fast-grow­ing com­pa­ny spe­cial­iz­ing in MRO, engine field ser­vices, mate­r­i­al repair, and the sales and trad­ing of air­craft and engine parts. 

“The announce­ment marks the sin­gle largest eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment recruit­ment project ever intro­duced through Bay EDA and ECP,” said Shane Boyett, Bay EDA Exec­u­tive Com­mit­tee mem­ber. ​“IAG Aero Group’s plans will not only gen­er­ate a sig­nif­i­cant ini­tial eco­nom­ic boost, but it will also bol­ster the Region’s rep­u­ta­tion as a cen­ter for avi­a­tion excel­lence for years to come.”

Florida’s Great North­west uti­lized its estab­lished con­nec­tions in the avi­a­tion indus­try and region­al exper­tise to devel­op a rela­tion­ship with the com­pa­ny, lead­ing to the project oppor­tu­ni­ty. ECP and Bay EDA lead­ers, rec­og­niz­ing the project’s sig­nif­i­cance, were ful­ly com­mit­ted to bring­ing it to fruition. From craft­ing and sub­mit­ting a com­pelling pro­pos­al to secure Tri­umph grant funds, to ensur­ing IAG Aero Group rec­og­nized the val­ue of expand­ing oper­a­tions into Bay Coun­ty, ECP and Bay EDA’s efforts exem­pli­fy how a strong, focused part­ner­ship can dri­ve last­ing, pos­i­tive eco­nom­ic impacts. By direct­ly address­ing work­force devel­op­ment and infra­struc­ture needs, Bay EDA and ECP con­tin­ue to deliv­er mean­ing­ful out­comes for our community. 

“IAG Aero Group choos­ing Bay Coun­ty is a tes­ta­ment to our Region’s capac­i­ty to fur­ther excel­lence in the avi­a­tion sec­tor,” said Bec­ca Hardin, Pres­i­dent of Bay EDA. ​“The arrival of this project will only pro­pel North­west Flori­da for­ward, attract­ing more invest­ment and inter­est in our area as a hub for avi­a­tion innovation.” 

With $25 mil­lion in fund­ing award­ed by Tri­umph Gulf Coast, IAG Aero Group plans to estab­lish three key facil­i­ties in Bay Coun­ty. The first facil­i­ty is a 120,000-square-foot air­craft engine MRO facil­i­ty ded­i­cat­ed to com­mer­cial air­craft engines for wide and nar­row body air­craft. This facil­i­ty will per­form engine main­te­nance for air­lines and air­craft own­ers around the world, bring­ing fur­ther atten­tion to Bay Coun­ty from a world­wide avi­a­tion com­mu­ni­ty. IAG Aero Group has cus­tomers in 50 coun­tries around the world.

The Com­pa­ny also plans to build a 40,000-square-foot engine test cell at ECP which will be one of the few in the South­east. This facil­i­ty rep­re­sents a sub­stan­tial invest­ment and fur­ther sig­nals just how impor­tant the region is in the aero­space indus­try sector. 

Third, the Com­pa­ny has pur­chased an exist­ing 140,000-square-foot facil­i­ty sit­u­at­ed on 36 acres in Bay Coun­ty. This cen­ter will serve as the hub for the company’s ware­house and parts dis­tri­b­u­tion operations. 

“As a glob­al com­pa­ny, we are proud to estab­lish robust avi­a­tion facil­i­ties in Bay Coun­ty, where the avi­a­tion sec­tor is expe­ri­enc­ing remark­able growth,” said Mauri­cio Luna, CEO of IAG Aero Group. ​“The prox­im­i­ty to ECP’s 10,000-foot run­way was par­tic­u­lar­ly attrac­tive to our orga­ni­za­tion, pro­vid­ing a strate­gic advan­tage for our oper­a­tions and enhanc­ing our abil­i­ty to bet­ter serve our clients.”

Over the next decade, this ini­tia­tive is expect­ed to gen­er­ate approx­i­mate­ly $479 mil­lion in addi­tion­al house­hold income with­in the com­mu­ni­ty, mark­ing it as a trans­for­ma­tive project for Bay Coun­ty and the sur­round­ing areas. 

“We are excit­ed to wit­ness the cul­mi­na­tion of years of effort turn­ing into high-impact job cre­ation for projects in our Region,” said Jen­nifer Cono­ley, Pres­i­dent & CEO of Florida’s Great North­west. ​“IAG’s invest­ment rein­forces North­west Florida’s posi­tion as a major play­er with­in the Gulf Coast Aero­space Corridor.”

Con­struc­tion is set to com­mence soon, with com­ple­tion expect­ed in 2026.

“This project is just the begin­ning of a new era for our Region,” said Park­er W. McClel­lan Jr., A.A.E., ECP Exec­u­tive Direc­tor. ​“We look for­ward to the oppor­tu­ni­ties it will bring to fur­ther solid­i­fy the estab­lish­ment of ECP’s Avi­a­tion Cen­ter of Excel­lence and the con­tin­ued col­lab­o­ra­tion with our partners.”

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About North­west Flori­da Beach­es Inter­na­tion­al Airport

North­west Flori­da Beach­es Inter­na­tion­al Air­port (ECP) is locat­ed less than 30 min­utes from Pana­ma City Beach, Pana­ma City, and the beach­es of South Wal­ton. Today, with ser­vice from Amer­i­can Air­lines, Delta Air Lines, South­west Air­lines, and Unit­ed Air­lines, ECP’s air­line part­ners pro­vide dai­ly flights to world­wide des­ti­na­tions, includ­ing year-round and sea­son­al non­stop flights between ECP and Atlanta (ATL), Austin (AUS) Bal­ti­more (BWI), Char­lotte (CLT), Chica­go (MDW/ORD), Dal­las (DAL/DFW), Den­ver (DEN), Hous­ton (HOU/IAH), Indi­anapo­lis (IND), Kansas City (MCI), Nashville (BNA), St. Louis (STL), Wash­ing­ton DC (DCA), and more. ECP pro­vides North­west Flori­da with first-class facil­i­ties and was strate­gi­cal­ly devel­oped for major eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties. ECP is the gate­way to vis­i­tors seek­ing North­west Florida’s famous beaches. 

About Bay Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment Alliance

The Bay Coun­ty Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment Alliance (BayE­DA) is Bay County’s eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment enti­ty. Pub­licly and pri­vate­ly fund­ed, BayE­DA serves Bay Coun­ty in the mis­sion of sup­port­ing the exist­ing busi­ness­es in Bay Coun­ty and in the recruit­ment of new busi­ness to Bay Coun­ty. BayE­DA sup­ports the exist­ing pil­lars of the econ­o­my and is ded­i­cat­ed to grow­ing and diver­si­fy­ing the Bay Coun­ty economy.

About IAG Aero Group

IAG Aero Group is a glob­al aero­space com­pa­ny known for its parts sup­ply, engine and air­craft trad­ing, and MRO facil­i­ties. Ser­vices are linked to pro­vid­ing cus­tomer val­ue through improved lev­els of tech­nol­o­gy, qual­i­ty, and respon­sive­ness. IAG Aero Group is com­posed of IAG Engine Cen­ter, LLC; IAG Engine Cen­ter Europe, S.r.L.; IAG Engine Field Ser­vices, LLC; IAG Mate­ri­als, LLC; and IAG Trad­ing, LLC.

About Florida’s Great Northwest

Florida’s Great North­west is the region­al eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment orga­ni­za­tion for the 13-coun­ty region of the Flori­da Pan­han­dle. The orga­ni­za­tion pro­motes North­west Flori­da for eco­nom­ic growth and diver­si­fi­ca­tion, advo­cates for eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment issues that affect the region, and col­lab­o­rates to improve region­al com­pet­i­tive­ness. Beyond our beach­es, North­west Flori­da offers busi­ness com­pet­i­tive, bot­tom-line advan­tages in work­force train­ing, upgrad­ed infra­struc­ture, access to a host of defense assets, and a diverse base of indus­tries that already call the region home.