IAG Aero Group Lands In Florida, Will Create 500 Aviation Jobs

The aviation and aerospace industry continues to grow in northwest Florida with IAG Aero Group announcing its plan to build a maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) facility and a rare engine test cell facility in Panama City at Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport (ECP). The company, which specializes in MRO, engine field services, material repair, and sales and trading of aircraft and engine parts, will invest $107 million to establish its new location in the state.

“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.”

“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.”

The announce­ment marks the sin­gle largest eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment recruit­ment project ever intro­duced through Bay Economic Development Alliance (Bay EDA) and ECP.

“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.” 

“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.”

To bring the project to fruition, ECP, Bay EDA, and Florida’s Great Northwest worked together to assist IAG Aero Group in its location decision. 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, worked to craft and submit a proposal as well as to secure Triumph grant funds.

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. IAG Aero Group has cus­tomers in 50 coun­tries around the world.

The com­pa­ny will also build a 40,000-square-foot engine test cell at ECP which will be one of the few in the south­east U.S. This facil­i­ty rep­re­sents a sub­stan­tial invest­ment and fur­ther sig­nals the region’s growing importance 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. 

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. 

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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