New airline hangar opens at flyExclusive in Kinston

KINSTON, N.C. (WITN) -People gathered Tuesday afternoon to celebrate the opening of flyExclusive’s newest airline hangar in Kinston.

The 9,500 square foot space will allow flyExclusive to further expand maintenance, repair, and overhaul capabilities for its jets.

The celebration is a stark difference from December when the company laid off 50 people.

“There’s no harder decision any executive or leader of a company has to make than to have any layoffs,” said Jim Segrave, flyExclusive Founder and CEO.

Several people say they received an email from the private jet company letting them know they were being let go right before Christmas, which Segrave says was solely a business decision.

“As you get bigger you have economy of scale, you have ability to run the business profitably,” Segrave said. “It’s an unfortunate requirement of running any business, one of the harder things you have to do.”

Now the company is trying to move forward.

This is flyExclusive’s second ribbon cutting in the last four months for one of its new facilities and President Tommy Sowers says it’s a credit to the city of Kinston.

“We had about 400 employees when I got here, now we’re well over 800,” Sowers said. “The growth here in Kinston and support from the community has been fantastic.”

The opening of the new hangar completes phase two of flyExclusive’s campus expansion plan.

Segrave says they’re now working on building new corporate offices and a hotel.

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