Aviation company expects to double its Middle Georgia workforce

Yulista Aviation expects it will be able to double the number of employees in Middle Georgia with a hangar it will move into at the Middle Georgia Regional Airport.

About 75 people gathered at the 20,000-square-foot hangar Tuesday to officially announce the company's expansion. It now has offices in Byron and Warner Robins.

"Since 2002, we have been very fortunate to have some remarkable growth," Yulista President Darrell Harrison said. "In 13 years, we've grown from one employee to almost 900 employees now. We operate out of 23 different facilities in Alabama, here and in the panhandle of Florida."

The company works with all branches of the military on the modification and maintenance of aircraft as new technologies and improved capabilities are developed, Harrison said.

"We do this modification work on fixed wing aircraft and a lot of it on rotary wing and unmanned systems," he said. "We've known for a very long time if we wanted to grow in this area, we needed a hangar. And so the hangar we're in today just represents our next step in growing in this area. And right now our plans today are to modify Blackhawk aircraft, Lakotas and Chinooks and B22s. ... These are going to be aircraft from the Air Force, the Marines and the Army."

At this time, the company has more than 40 employees in the midstate, "and we think this time next year, we will at least double that," he said.

The Macon-Bibb County Industrial Authority invested more than $1 million in a partnership with Yulista by leasing the hangar. The authority agreed in December to acquire the leasehold interests of the hangar and some smaller temporary hangars. Lowe Aviation had owned the hangar and used it for storage.

'ECONOMIC LIFEBLOOD'

Authority Chairman Cliffard Whitby said that part of the responsibility of the authority is to "vet companies," and as they looked into Yulista, "their employees and their commitment to the communities that they serve is second to none."

Mayor Robert Reichert, directing his remarks to Yulista's Harrison during the ceremony, said, "We are committed to you and we want to make your time here very profitable, very efficient" and would work with the company to help it grow.

Everyone benefits when companies such as Yulista add to the local workforce, said Star Purdue, chairwoman of the Macon Economic Development Commission.

"The economic lifeblood of any business community is growth," Purdue said. "Yulista's expansion here at the Middle Georgia Regional Airport is an example of the opportunity that develops when various partners working together bring new industry and services to the Middle Georgia area."

Yulista Aviation Inc. is one of seven subsidiaries of Yulista Holding. The parent company is Calista Corp., a regional corporation owned by native people and formed under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971.

Harrison said that during the past 13 years the company has been fortunate to accomplish three major goals.

"We've been able to provide hundreds of jobs, well-paying jobs, in Alabama, Georgia and Florida," he said. "We've been able to support our troops. And we've been able to send profits back to an Eskimo people who are very economically depressed. So, this hangar will allow us to continue on with those goals."

To contact writer Linda S. Morris, call 744-4223.

This story was originally published January 19, 2016 at 7:33 PM with the headline "Aviation company expects to double its Middle Georgia workforce ."