Laurentian will be hiring aircraft mechanics, many of them right out of school. The under- construction Plattsburgh Aeronautical Institute at Plattsburgh International, which will produce 100 graduates annually, comes into play here. Gobeil says the prospect of having a training school nearby was a major factor in Laurentian's site decision.
   "It was a very wise move to locate the school there," Gobeil says. "It would be hard to ask for anything better."
   Gobeil, who describes himself as having "been in aviation forever" was president of Hudson General Aviation Services in Canada in the 1970s and 1980s and later was a partner in the World Aviation Center, a fixed- base operator at Toronto's Pearson International Airport. Laurentian's chairman is Pierre Jeanniot, a former president and CEO of Air Canada.
   The construction start was delayed from October, but the overall timetable will be the same, Gobeil says.
   "We had to hire a new U.S. engineering firm and new companies to do the actual construction, but we still plan to be in operation by May 2008,"

This rendering illustrates the new terminal at Plattsburgh International Airport, set to open in 2007.

Gobeil says. "At the time we made the announcement, we allowed for more time."
   The Plattsburgh Aeronautical Institute will enroll its first students in the fall of 2007. It is a partnership with CV- Tech, a public technical school serving 17 school districts in Clinton, Essex, Warren and Washington counties and Clinton Community College. PAI will also work with École national d'aérotechnique, the largest aeronautical school in North America, in Saint- Hubert, Québec.
   Plattsburg International, which will open a new $20- million terminal in 2007, is part of the former Plattsburgh Air Force Base, which closed in 1995 and has been redeveloped with a largely aviation theme. Douglass says there is plenty of available room on the sprawling 5,000- acre (2,024- hectare) base.
   "Laurentian is taking a sizeable piece of territory, but there's so much space here it boggles people's minds when they see it," Douglas says. "There's a concrete apron of 12 million square feet [1.1 million sq. m.]."
   The airport is being restricted to aviation development and has previously attracted Pratt & Whitney Canada and Bombardier to the site. Space adjacent to the airport is available for other industries desiring to be close to an airport, but not needing to be on the flight line.
   Upstate New York's Southern Tier region is also seeing aviation investment. Schweitzer Aircraft Corp., a subsidiary of United Technologies' Sikorsky Aircraft, is expanding its Big Flats facility, creating 100 new jobs. Schweitzer specializes in helicopters and reconnaissance aircraft.