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Flying Colours Corp. is celebrating 30 years of successful aircraft maintenance, repair, overhaul (MRO), and interiors operations. Launched as an aircraft painting business by current president John Gillespie, the small start-up quickly developed into an aircraft sales business before evolving into a fully-fledged MRO and interiors business in 1989.
Since inception, the privately-owned, family-run company has grown its business from a small hangar dedicated to painting turboprops and small jets at Peterborough Airport, to an international company. Flying Colours is now known for its strong maintenance capabilities, creative interior cabin design resulting in functional, yet stylish completions, refurbishments including Flying Colours branded CRJ ExecLiner, avionics expertise, and its ability to handle complex special mission projects.
Led by the core philosophies of integrity, innovation, and flexibility, what used to be the smallest business at the airport is now the largest airport tenant, and is currently expanding its headquarters’ footprint with the addition of a fourth hangar measuring more than 100,000 square feet.
A second base was established in 2009 when Flying Colours purchased JetCorp Technical services in St. Louis, Mo., which became Flying Colours KSUS in 2013. The facility expanded rapidly and now consists of a 40,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art dedicated cabinetry and interiors facility along with a further 60,000 square feet of hangars, the most recent of which opened its doors for business in January of this year.
With the opening of a Singapore interiors division at the Bombardier Seletar Airport facility in 2015, Flying Colours went international. A growing Asia-Pacific-based team provides a range of services from interior touch-ups to complete refurbishments for Bombardier aircraft based in the region. Today, a global team, which is anticipated to exceed more than 500 employees by year-end, delivers an extensive selection of dedicated business aviation services.
“It’s a well-known fact that the business aviation sector is a competitive and challenging industry to succeed in, and we are extremely proud to be marking our 30th anniversary this year. In some ways it feels like we are just getting started as we still have a lot of exciting plans to implement over the next decades,” said Gillespie. “It goes without saying we would not have got to where we are without the support of our elite set of customers who value the fact we can deliver even the most complex project . . . and most importantly, our highly motivated and skilled technical teams. As the years progress, this is set to continue to grow.”
Flying Colours plans to mark its 30th year with internal and external events with customers, partners and its growing in-house team, to demonstrate its gratitude to those that have worked and supported the business through the years.
