Runway Reconstruction Negotiations

AAR wants the airport to reconsider runway reconstruction scheduled soon.

Reconstructing the main airport runway in Duluth may have been grounded.

Companies who use the runway said if it closes for repair, their business could fly off.

AAR is a maintenance, repair, and overhaul company that services commercial airlines. 

Closing the main runway would not allow their customers to fly their planes in or out for scheduled maintenance.

A possible closure would affect three to four hundred jobs at AAR.

Now the mayor and the city have stepped into renegotiate the plan.

“We’ve all had a chance to take a step back and look at what’s really important and how soon that runway needs to be repaired and how we can all make all that work together. We agree that runway needs to be fixed over a period of time but I don’t think it needs to be fixed today,” said Mark Ketterer, AAR vice president of operations.

Another fifty employees would be added if the company adds a fourth line.