1,100 new jobs at Global TransPark in Kinston

[DCMetroRaleigh]

The jobs at the aircraft parts supplier will pay an average of $48,122 annually, compared with the average yearly wage of $27,042 in Lenoir County.

http://www.wral.com/business/story/2874398/

[Creasy336]

Great to finally hear some good news about GTP.

[rooster8]

Finally!!

[ChiefJoJo]

It's official: 1,037 jobs and $570M in investment. Apparently, these are high skill, high paying jobs too. I am truly amazed. I guess naysayers might have to admit it's finally worth the investment, or at least on it's way. This is a HUGE deal for Kinston.

[uptownliving]

It looks like one of the main things they will be manufacturing is parts of the fuselage for the Airbus A350 (main competitor to the Boeing 787 Dreamliner). US Airways has put in a large order for A350's so the employees in Kinston might be able to one day drive over to Charlotte to see their product in action.

[orulz]

I wonder what incentives were offered to lure Spirit to GTP.

When Boeing was considering GTP, they were offered a package worth $534 million.

So far, all I have seen is that the city of Kinston has offered the company water and sewer service at a guaranteed fixed rate. Since Easley's making these announcements, it's pretty obvious that something more coming from the state level, beyond the money spent constructing and operating GTP.

[ChiefJoJo]

OK, upon closer inspection, this is still very big for Kinston, but not as fantastic as I thought. The state threw in $125M in incentives... $100M from Golden LEAF (tobacco settlement program), $20M in reduced payroll taxes, and $5M from the One NC program... and the jobs pay an avg of $48k/each, not quite the $70k mentioned above. Also, the article mentions the GTP has recived $80M in state and federal funding since 1991... so it's still a very positive announcement, but I'm going to retract my statement that GTP is worth the investments at this point. I'd like to see a few more of these types of major corporate relocations before it pays for itself.

[sax184]

I understand the desire to help out struggling rural communities, but I struggle to see how an economic development strategy in the middle of nowhere based around aviation makes any coherent sense with oil trading at $129.

If these jobs materialize, it will be interesting to see if they stay. The passenger aviation industry is crumbling before our eyes, and freight has got to be hurting, too.

[NcSc74]

I understand the desire to help out struggling rural communities, but I struggle to see how an economic development strategy in the middle of nowhere based around aviation makes any coherent sense with oil trading at $129.

If these jobs materialize, it will be interesting to see if they stay. The passenger aviation industry is crumbling before our eyes, and freight has got to be hurting, too.

[reeeems]

I understand the desire to help out struggling rural communities, but I struggle to see how an economic development strategy in the middle of nowhere based around aviation makes any coherent sense with oil trading at $129.

If these jobs materialize, it will be interesting to see if they stay. The passenger aviation industry is crumbling before our eyes, and freight has got to be hurting, too.

[sax184]

So if these jobs were anywhere else in state they would be a sure thing? If anything once the shock of high oil settles in to the mindset of everyone the truly innovative efficient corporations will find a way to rebound. I don't think aviation is a bad investment. A lot of innovations come from the aviation industry plus these aircraft are being built to be fuel efficient. No need bashing the GTP when this is what it was built for in the first place. Now all of a sudden when a huge announcement comes everyone still finds the need to find something to nitpick about it. So I guess its better to let the GTP die with no investment from industry at all. Your argument seems to be directed at the location than of the financial impact.

[NcSc74]

No, economic development with an intensive petroleum fuel input is a bad idea anywhere in NC, which has no domestic petroleum industry to speak of. I think Greensboro is busy building its own coffin by staking so much of its future on the Fedex hub. But Greensboro is in a better position to make some money off Fedex as the air industry goes down in flames over the next ten years because they already have major trucking distribution centers there, the NCRR mainline as well as rail connections to other cities, and a strategic location along the Colonial Pipeline from the Gulf coast.

As for aviation, do you know ANY industry that increases efficiency 100% over a year's time? The cost of oil has double since a year ago, and a 100% fuel efficiency improvement would be needed to keep up. The 787 Dreamliner, Boeing's quantum leap forward plane, will get 20% better fuel efficiency than today's planes.

Let's say oil prices don't continue to rise at this pace, but rise at 20% year over year. The considerable and cutting edge improvements to the Dreamliner will be made irrelevant by rising costs in the first 2-4 years of the plane's existence. The big problem is that there's just no substitute for jet fuel. You can't run jets on ethanol, biodiesel, etc. We can't even get an electric car to go more than 50-100 miles on one charge. Forget about the energy needed to fly a plane.

I don't suggest that this isn't good news for Kinston, which has suffered a lot economically. However, I think any gains out here, if they materialize, are likely to be short lived due to the challenges facing aviation, which are not going away. Let's face it- the GTP was always an unrealistic idea that sprung from good intentions to help economically depressed rural communities. But pushing for more of this type of economic development at the GTP is "fighting the last war." The GTP ought to be turned into the Global Solar Panel Park or something like that.

[Jones_]

I think Transitman makes a great and relevant point. With an obvious economic and energy paradigm shift underway, the GTP may not be situated to exploit this and any future relocations to the fullest extant. A similar analogy might be turning over a habitat for humanity house to a family that does not have the income to properly invest and keep up their new home. Gradually the shutters fall off, the plumbing fails and you have to move back into a small section 8 apartment downtown on the bus line.