Continental Express Airlines continues to expand its maintenance operations at Shreveport Regional Airport. In addition to a 148,000-sq.-ft. hangar it occupied in November 2001, the carrier opened in September 2004 a 28,000-sq.-ft. (2,601-sq.-m.) former hangar for use as a parts and equipment-testing facility. This frees up space in the larger hangar, where the carrier performs C-checks, or heavy maintenance, on its Embraer regional jets. Previously, Boeing had used the hangar for military aircraft modifications.
      A 20,000-sq.-ft. (1,858-sq.-m.) expansion of the hangar is planned, which will provide warehouse and work space. The airport has secured a $1.5 million Economic Development Area Partnership grant to help fund a new fire-suppression system.
      Locating the airline's maintenance operation in Shreveport (it operates other such facilities in Knoxville, Tenn., and Houston) gave a boost to the area's aerospace industry once Boeing closed its airport operation. Several hundred people now work at the facility, most of whom are airframe and powerplant mechanics. Shreveport, unlike most other cities, has a good supply of such workers, thanks to Southern University's Aerospace Technology Program, which is based at Shreveport's Downtown Airport, and nearby Barksdale Air Force Base, where B-52 Stratofortress heavy bombers are based.