DunnAir folds, leaves laid off Bombardier workers hanging

DunnAir Business Jet Completion Center was expected to fill a huge hangar at Tucson International Airport with corporate jets being outfitted with all the touches business executives wanted. The company was to be the savior for up to 600 of the 800 workers Bombardier laid off from its own finishing operation starting in 2005. Bombardier moved its work to Wichita, Kan., and Montreal.

But DunnAir never lived up to that status. At its height, the company employed about 55 people.

The company last year laid off 40 of its workers, leaving 10 employees working in a hangar big enough to hold 21 business jets or four Boeing 747s.

Dunn’s enterprise never took off because DunnAir did not have an established customer base, said Jim Garcia, senior director of Business Development for the Tucson Airport Authority. The authority leases the land the hangar is on to Bombardier for $285,000 a year. Bombardier has to pay for the lease whether or not it sublets the hangar.

Dale Dunn, founder of DunnAir, could not be reached for comment. The phone number for the business has been disconnected and Garcia said the airport authority has not been able to reach him directly, either.

“DunnAir did everything they could. They had a good team and . . . I think he gave it as good of a shot as he could,” Garcia said.

Although Dunn had experience in the industry, the company was new and getting corporations to turn over multi-million-dollar aircraft for a retrofit or other interior work to a company with no track record was too much to overcome, Garcia said.

With Dunn moved out of the hangar, it falls to Bombardier whether to fill it.

Bombardier is reviewing its options for the 235,000-square-foot hangar , said Eric Brammer, general manager of Bombardier’s facilities in Tucson.

The hangar at 1555 E. Aero Park Blvd. is vacant, Brammer said.