Desert Jet Breaks Ground on Ramp Extension at Jacqueline Cochran Regional Airport

Desert Jet has begun construction of a ramp extension at Jacqueline Cochran Regional Airport (KTRM) in Thermal, in the Palm Springs area of California's Coachella Valley. Two additional hangars are to follow as part of the company's continued development at the airport.

The company recently finalized an agreement with Riverside County to add 7.5 acres (about 3 hectares) to its airport leasehold. The deal supports growth of Desert Jet Center's fixed-base-operator and aircraft-maintenance services. The first phase is expected to add roughly 3.5 acres of aircraft-parking capacity and to be completed by the end of 2026. Desert Jet CEO Jared Fox said the expansion will allow the company to increase capacity and enhance its maintenance capabilities at the Thermal location.

Later phases call for two open-span hangars, along with passenger and pilot lounges, conference space, hospitality facilities and an on-site maintenance repair station. Accounts differ on hangar size: one describes each structure as just under 30,000 square feet, while AIN describes a pair of adjoining 28,000-square-foot hangars. ch-aviation reported that the two hangars are planned for construction in 2027 and that the work is part of a roughly $24 million investment in the company's FBO and maintenance facilities.

The campus already includes a 32,500-square-foot executive building. Desert Jet Center operates as an independent FBO at the airport, providing fueling, ground services, aircraft storage and maintenance. Desert Jet Maintenance is an FAA-certified Part 145 repair station handling scheduled and unscheduled maintenance, repairs and aircraft-on-ground support.

Desert Jet currently employs 40 full-time staff at its Thermal operations, and employment at the campus is expected to reach roughly 60 full-time jobs as the new facilities come online. Desert Jet also began managing two heated hangars at Yampa Valley Regional Airport in Hayden, Colorado, in late 2025.

The expansion traces to a 2024 restructuring in which Desert Jet Holdings sold its charter subsidiary to Advanced Air while retaining full ownership and operation of Desert Jet Center and Desert Jet Maintenance.

The company said the sale would let Desert Jet Center accelerate its Thermal expansion plan and pursue additional FBO acquisitions nationally.

Desert Jet's path shows a pattern in business-aviation ground infrastructure: a company sheds its flight-operations arm and concentrates capital on the assets that earn from any operator's aircraft, namely ramp space, fuel, hangars and a repair station. In that model, leasehold acres and parking capacity are the scarce inputs, so a county lease agreement is the step that determines how much of the rest can be built.

The sequencing is also characteristic of FBO development. Ramp comes first because it can be completed within the year and starts generating storage and fueling activity, while the hangars, lounges and repair station follow in later phases that need more capital and longer construction. Pairing an FBO with an in-house Part 145 shop lets one site serve transient traffic and based aircraft needing maintenance, which is why the maintenance station is part of the same plan rather than a separate project.

The next dated markers are the end-of-2026 completion target for the first phase and the 2027 hangar construction window reported by ch-aviation. The final hangar dimensions are the one figure still described two different ways across accounts, and the company's own specification would settle it.