Rod Holter, vice president and general manager of Cessna Piston Aircraft, officially marked Columbia Aircraft Manufacturing Corp.’s transition to Cessna Aircraft Co. on Wednesday morning with a ceremonial Cessna flag-raising, replacing a Columbia flag.

Cessna completed its purchase of Columbia on Tuesday.

Holter will manage the Bend aircraft facility until he hires a new general manager. After that, he will visit Bend from Cessna headquarters in Wichita, Kan., once a month to ensure a smooth transition.

Holter hopes to know by Christmas which of Columbia’s top managers he plans to keep in Bend and which will be released because their positions are redundant with those in Cessna. Redundant positions could include those in airplane sales, he said.

The company will retain former Columbia employees whose jobs are not fulfilled in Cessna already, Holter said. That’s expected to be most of the plant’s 430 workers.

“Orientation has begun,” Holter said of employee training for the Cessna company. “Already, their benefits are superior to what they had before.”

Holter estimated employees’ yearly medical insurance contributions will cost one-twelfth as much as they did under Columbia. Their wages will remain the same, he said.

Columbia filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Sept. 24 and in late November, Cessna emerged the top bidder at an auction for the 10-year-old company at U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Portland, bidding $26.4 million. Cessna officials have pledged to increase employee hours from 32 to 40 hours per week and to eventually increase payrolls along with production.