Blue Line Aviation, North Carolina’s largest flight school, has announced plans to immediately cease all investment in their previously announced expansion in Johnston County.
Those expansion plans which have now been scrapped included a hotel, an additional flight school building, a dormitory and other flex space on land that sits adjacent to JNX Airport.
Blue Line Aviation invested significant funds to purchase, plan, annex, and rezone a 14 acre parcel.
The flight school now recognizes that the JNX Airport cannot support the additional growth that the expansion would provide. This comes on the heels of an intensifying legal battle between Blue Line and the Airport as well as the FAA finding the Airport in violation of multiple Grant Assurances designed to prevent discriminatory practices.
As a result, the company is canceling the development project at JNX, putting the land up for sale, and putting its development dollars and energy into a new location.
Blue Line founder Trey Walters says “We are disappointed that the dispute with the Johnston County Airport has led to mistreatment of our company, which is a tremendous asset to the community. Unfortunately, their actions leave us unable to invest a single additional penny at this location as well as require us to cease expansion hiring and relocate jobs and resources to another location. We hope that the airport authority will reflect on its actions and treat other investors better in the future.”
Mr. Walters continues “While we were optimistic about our future growth in Johnston County the unfortunate reality left us no choice. We are going to take our lessons learned here and invest our future growth efforts elsewhere into a location that shares in our vision of excellence, innovation and integrity.”
More details on Blue Line’s new location and fleet expansion will be released in the coming weeks.
For more information about Blue Line Aviation, please visit www.bluelineaviation.com
About Blue Line Aviation
Blue Line Aviation, established in 2012, is one of only a few flight schools in the world to provide quality flight training programs at an accelerated pace. In as few as five and a half months, students can go from no experience to fully confident and certified pilots, fully prepared for a career in aviation. Schedule a tour of our new state-of-the-art facility (located at 3149B Swift Creek Road, Smithfield, North Carolina) and let your new career take flight. For more inquiries and additional information, please visit our website, find us on social media, or contact Ashley Tucker, our Vice President of Sales and Marketing, at (919) 578-3713 ext. 305.
