The county has eliminated a Jan. 15 job-creation deadline for AvCraft, an aircraft company offered $750,000 in public incentives and reduced rent to set up operation at Myrtle Beach International Airport.

The deadline, which required AvCraft to create 80 new jobs, was a mistake and should never have been part of the agreement with the company, Airport Director Bob Kemp said.

Local leaders said attracting the company was a victory for the local economy, and Gov. Mark Sanford gave a speech on job creation in front of an AvCraft plane at the airport in 2003. The Air Force Base Redevelopment Authority, which offered the $750,000 over four years, is charged with managing and privatizing the former air base.

AvCraft missed the deadline in the county's contract - it created 65 jobs by Jan. 15 - and would have lost a portion of its first $187,500 incentive payment. The company now has until June to create 80 jobs.

The county contract required 40 jobs by July 2004; 80 jobs by Jan. 15, 2005; and 200 jobs by Jan. 15, 2009, Kemp said.

However, the Redevelopment Authority has a written agreement with the company that says job creation will be judged based on the date AvCraft began business, Kemp said.

"There was a discrepancy between documents," Kemp said. "If I had known that's what [the county's job creation deadline] said, I wouldn't have signed it."

AvCraft agreed to move into the airport in December 2003 but said it did not begin business until June.

"Those two agreements were not the same. That kind of creates a loophole per se for not reaching those benchmarks," said County Councilman Marion Foxworth during a county Administration Committee meeting Monday.

Foxworth questioned Kemp over the future of AvCraft's only product, the 30-seat Dornier 328 airplane.

Industry analysts say the market for the plane is bleak. AvCraft recently bought the Dornier from a German company that went bankrupt after losing ground to larger regional jets in late 1990s.

For now, the Dornier is the only plane the company works on and stores. AvCraft's Myrtle Beach operation is now storing 47 of the 210 total Dornier propeller and jet planes produced.

"I had not heard that we had invested ... aviation money into the equivalent of the eight-track tape player," Foxworth said.

The company has performed above and beyond expectations, said Joe Woodle, president of Partners Economic Development Corp.

"I would hope that [AvCraft owner Ben] Bartel wouldn't invest in anything like that," Woodle said. "I think the company has so far showed very good leadership."