Tulsa’s American Airlines maintenance center plans to add 30 new jobs starting next month. The airline announced it will in-source more component maintenance work in its Brake and Wheel Center at Tech Ops-Tulsa.
The support and overhaul support mechanic positions will be shifting from a Collins Aerospace location in Louisville, Kentucky, and will include wheel and brake component maintenance for aircraft, including the Airbus A319, A320, A321, A321neo and A330 fleets, as well as Boeing 757 and 787 fleets, according to a report by the Tulsa World.
Tuesday’s announcement caps a year of growth at Tech Ops Tulsa.
To support the additional work, the base previously announced the hiring of 565 maintenance positions.
“Our team at the wheel and brake center just does phenomenal work,” Erik Olund, managing director of base maintenance at American, said by phone. “The reliability of the components that come out of there is just stellar.
“When we were looking at costs of things going forward, for us it makes sense to in-source this work from a cost-saving standpoint, combined with the reliability and the high volume. When you get a large amount of volume in a shop, all of a sudden the shop gets really good around that work.”
American performs more in-house maintenance work than any other airline, with the BWC conducting overhaul and repair work on nearly all of the brakes and wheels on American’s fleet.The 80,000-square-foot BWC was established in 2014 and is responsible for the machining, engineering and welding of worn brakes and wheels on aircraft.
More than 5,400 people work at Tech Ops-Tulsa, including more than 100 at the BWC. The 330-acre maintenance base is comprised of 22 buildings including 3.3 million square feet in hangar and shop space making it the largest commercial aviation maintenance facility in the world.
Source: Tulsa World