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Aviation company expands in Bangor

C & L Aviation relocated from Australia in 2010, and now is looking to expand here in Maine.

BANGOR, Maine — There is a nationwide shortage of aviation mechanics, including here in Maine.

An aviation company in Bangor, C&L Aviation, is looking to expand in space and in employees.

"When I first bought the company we had about twenty people... we're at about two hundred people now," CEO Chris Kilgour said.

Most mechanic courses last about a year to a year and a half.

C&L Aviation recruits from a program at the United Technologies Center in Bangor. The vocational school serves high school students in Bangor, Brewer, Corinth, Hampden, Hermon, Old Town, and Orono.

Once students finish the mechanic program, it's not very hard to find a job.

A quick Google search shows there are aviation mechanic positions like those open at C&L in Brunswick, South Portland, Waterboro and a handful of other locations.

But with such a demand for these trade workers, aviation companies are having a hard time filling all the open positions.

"We have work we're turning away because we don't have enough space... and we don't have enough employees," Kilgour said.

Nyree Campbell-Bailey is a mechanic at C&L. When asked what she likes about the job, "staying busy, and making stuff look pretty when it comes it ugly and send it out looking nice," she said with a laugh.

There are two sides to being an aviation mechanic. You can do the actual mechanical work, or you can work on the creative side.

"If you don't think you can work on the actual aircraft you can do a lot of the painting, you can do the upholstery, you can do the woodwork and still be considered an aircraft mechanic doing those things," Campbell-Bailey said.

C&L aviation has new space at the Bangor International Airport, space ready to be filled by as many as 75 new mechanics which officials hope to have filled by the end of this year.

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