Troubled by decreasing volume in a flat aviation economy, Mattituck Services, one of the northeast’s longest-established engine shops, will close at the end of May, according to Continental Motors. Some of the 23 affected employees will move to Continental’s Fairhope, Alabama facility, which offers similar services on overhauls and factory service.
“Very simply, we’re closing the Mattituck facility and integrating it with our facility in Fairhope, Alabama. Unfortunately, four years of continued bad GA market meant that it was not effective to keep two facilities open,” said Rhett Ross, CEO of Continental Motors. “Very bluntly, I think both us and Lycoming have a done a good job of pointing out the value of factory options and that has made a contribution across the board to the decline there. It was not an easy decision, but that facility has been marginal for at least the half decade.”
Mattituck was founded in 1946 by Parker Wickham, who converted part of the family’s Long Island potato farm into a small airport that eventually became known as Mattituck Airbase. The airport is located on the north shore of Long Island on Great Peconic Bay. The business remained in the Wickham family until it was sold in 1984, then bought back by the family in 1988. Teledyne-Continental bought Mattituck in 1999 and renamed it Teledyne-Mattituck Services. When Continental was itself bought by the China-based AVIC International, the shop was again renamed Mattituck Services.
