Bend’s Leading Edge Aviation plans to expand to RDM

The Redmond City Council next week will consider an application from Central Oregon’s Leading Edge Aviation, doing business as Leading Edge Jet Center LLC., to provide aviation related services at the Redmond Municipal Airport.

The services include fueling, aircraft storage, line service, general aviation services, maintenance and avionics service centers, and on-demand charters, city officials said.

Leading Edge Jet Center and the city plan to enter into a five-year operating agreement for 3.74 acres on the north side of the airfield. The facilities include an FBO office building, maintenance hangar, the historic World War II hangar, and the city-owned fuel farm.

“Airports are successful through partnerships and relationships. LEJC is an asset to the region and we look forward to the economic opportunities generated through their aviation services,” Redmond City Manager Keith Witcosky said in a news release.

If approved, the operating agreement between the LEJC and the city of Redmond will become effective July 1 and run through June 30, 2020.

Brad Fraley, Leading Edge Aviation president stated, “LEA is excited about forming a long-term partnership with the city of Redmond. By leveraging our FBO experience, reputable first-class service, and future development capabilities we are confident we will succeed in growing the general aviation and corporate market at the Redmond Municipal Airport.”

For more than two decades, Bend-based Leading Edge Aviation has served the Central Oregon aviation community. They have six primary business segments including helicopter charters, flight training, avionics, maintenance, Robinson Helicopter overhaul and wiring harness fabrication.

“Redmond provides us with an opportunity to expand our current business regionally as well as work with a well-run community that reflects the same business values as our own,” said Keith Watson, Leading Edge Aviation CEO.

Redmond Communications Manager Heather Cassaro said the timing – as the city wraps up a contentious legal dispute with its fixed-base operator, Butler Aircraft Services — is coincidental, other than that the news covered prompted “a number of inquiries from other interested FBO parties.”

“We did not go out and recruit or ask for people to submit” proposals, Cassaro said, noting that the city also “legally can’t deny” such services, if they meet city requirements.

“The exciting news is the potential of bringing an avionics service center to Redmond Airport,” Cassaro added, noting that “it would be one of only three in the state of Oregon.”

In a staff report sent to the mayor and council Thursday for next Tuesday’s meeting, Airport Director Jeff Tripp notes that Leading Edge plans annual lease payments starting at nearly $50,000, while the city and the company each will provide similar amounts of close to $50,000 for improvements to the north-side facilities.

The city also receives 2 cents a gallon for lease of the city-owned fuel tanks and a 7 cents a gallon “flowage fee.” LEJC also has up to two years to exercise an option for another parcel of adjacent aircraft space-rental apron.