Local businesses - including Rocket Science Internet Solutions, Resport LLC (owner of the Marriott Residence Inn at Pease) and Bank of New Hampshire - have sued Alliance for thousands of dollars, claiming unpaid bills and failure to repay a loan of more than $280,000.Īlliance's fortunes seemed to improve in June, when it inked a $600 million deal with a Russian aviation firm to manufacture military jets. If Alliance does leave New Hampshire, not everybody here will be sad to see it go. As of last count, the company had about 50 employees and was operating from a small building at Pease after moving out of the offices in Dover it was using as a headquarters. While states such as Ohio, Oklahoma, Maine, California, Florida and Georgia have been mentioned since as potential new homes for the company, Alliance remains on the Seacoast. Robinson's dream to build 55- to 110-seat regional jets at Pease soon began to look like it would never be reality.īy August, Robinson announced that frustration over criticism in the media and a business climate he termed as 'not friendly' were leading him to move Alliance out of New Hampshire.

Billed at the time as the Pease Development Authority's biggest deal ever, the announcement spurred the interest of thousands of workers hoping to cash in on the promise of big paychecks and a new career in aviation.īut as the year progressed, Alliance failed to secure the financial backing it needed to add jobs at the pace of 100 workers a month as promised, and to move its operations through the aircraft design process.

The company, the brainchild of aviation industry whiz Earl Robinson, announced in January that it planned to launch its regional jet manufacturing business at Pease International Tradeport, creating 2,000 new jobs and building a 400,000-square-foot headquarters. When it came to the topic that kept Seacoast business types talking in 2000, it was the promise, and then near flat-line, of Alliance Aircraft Corp. Capodice said older workers do offer some hope for businesses desperately seeking employees. The problem is one that was also being felt nationally, and Congress answered by loosening Social Security eligibility to allow retirees to return to the work force more easily, with the aim of adding more people to the pool of potential employees. Likewise, competition for workers drove up wages, a boon for workers, but crippling for some businesses. 'I've seen a lot of businesses that are once again indicating there is a crying need for people.'īusinesses, from the small to large, tried techniques such as offering sign-on bonuses to draw more workers for the holiday season, with some success, but some ventures could not afford to do so. 'I just don't see it changing,' Martin Capodice, a labor market analyst for the state, said in September, a time when businesses were hit hard by vacationing students heading back to school and quitting summer jobs, leaving even fewer adults available to fill positions.

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