A GLOBAL aviation company that provides jets for hire to the rich and famous, as well as the worldwide business community, is planning a £3.5million expansion at Glasgow Airport.

Gama Aviation is building a giant hangar, increasing its maintenance business, launching an operations centre and opening an exclusive terminal for VIP passengers.

The company employs 15 staff at the airport and at least another 25 will be hired when the new facilities are completed next spring.

Gama, which also operates the country's only dedicated emergency plane on behalf of Scottish Air Ambulance, will create a giant building that will encompass a 17,222 sq ft hanger and a terminal for its wealthy clients.

Glasgow Airport is seen an ideal stopover for business executives who have chartered their own private jet to whisk them almost 7000 miles between Gama's North American base at Teterboro, in Bergen County, New Jersey, to the company's Middle East base at Sharjah, in the United Arab Emirates.

It's a journey that can take about 14 hours.

A Gama spokeswoman said Glasgow Airport was chosen as the "optimum stopover point" since it is "virtually midway between the USA and the UAE."

Officials say the hangar will be big enough to accommodate the Scottish Air Ambulance King Air plane as well as other jets from their own fleet and that of other operators.

General manager Tom Wells said: "We currently have a single office at the airport with no hangar or other facilities.

"The provision of the hangar and an engineering base will be the main benefits to the ambulance service aircraft.

"It will also mean scheduled maintenance checks can be done locally rather than having to position the aircraft down to our Farnborough facilities, which obviously take the aircraft away from Scotland than would otherwise be required.

"The provision of a hangar will also mean fewer occasions when aircraft will need to be de-iced in winter, saving time and money. And it means passengers can board in the hangar rather than outside, increasing privacy and avoiding bad weather outside."

An airport spokesman for said: "This is a considerable and welcome investment. Gama Aviation has further demonstrated its commitment to Glasgow Airport."

gordon.thomson@eveningtimes.co.uk