An aviation business with a vision in Salina opened up shop on Friday with a ribbon cutting ceremony–and with that brings highly skilled jobs with excellent pay.

1 Vision Aviation officially opened up its new headquarters in Salina at Hangar H959, 2044 Scanlan Ave., on Friday afternoon.

At the ceremony, 1 Vision Aviation welcomed U.S. Senator Jerry Moran; Salina Mayor, Dr. Trent Davis; and James Sponder, President & CEO, 1 Vision Aviation. Also present were representatives with the Salina Airport Authority, Salina City Commission, Saline County Commission, Salina Area Chamber of Commerce as well as curious on lookers.

Senator Moran tells KSAL News that Salina is the perfect fit for a business that has a huge role in the aviation industry. With that, Moran says the newly moved business will have a huge role on the Salina economy–a move that he hopes other communities around the state can replicate.

1 Vision was previously headquartered in Sioux City, Iowa before its move to Salina. 1 Vision is FAA certified FAR part 145 repair station. The company is a complete maintenance, repair, and overhaul facility which provides all manner of airframe inspections and repairs as well as power plant work on many types of large air carrier sized aircraft.

In addition, 1 Vision has a General Aviation division with both maintenance and avionics capabilities that is planned to be incorporated into the Salina operation. This division will work on smaller private planes up to and including corporate type aircraft.

1 Vision Aviation performs line maintenance, service checks, heavy checks, modifications, painting of the aircraft (interior and exterior) and components, sheet metal work, refurbishment, fiberglass repair, and more.

1 Vision can support airlines with an AOG team capable of deploying to anywhere in the continental U.S. within 12 hours to get aircraft on the ground back in the air.

1 Vision was operating at 100% capacity in Sioux City and has a growing list of airline customer contracts necessitating the expansion to Salina.

Currently, there are 50 employees at the Salina location with hopes of expending to over 100 within the next year. The ultimate hope is for the business to employ approximately 450 people in three years.