Here is an interesting video news story from WDIO News about Kestrel and the status of this project, and what it means to Superior.
Could this be a replay of the Northwest Airlines Maintenance Base in Duluth that was shuttered in 2005. For more on that, scroll down below this video.
Hopefully Kestrel’s financial problems will be short term, and won’t be a replay of the Northwest Airlines Maintenance fiasco that didn’t pan out. The $46 million base at Duluth International Airport was opened in 1996 as a state-of-the-art maintenance hangar for Northwest’s Airbus A320s. Owned by the Duluth Economic Development Authority, the base was part of a $371 million financial bailout package the state put together for financially strapped Northwest.
The state of Minnesota issued 20-year bonds in 1994 to make the deal happen, and Northwest promised to employ at least 350 workers at the base for the 30 years of its lease. NWA abandoned the base in 2005, and walked away from their financial obligations in 2006 when they filed bankruptcy.
