American Airlines to invest $550 million in Tulsa Facility
American Airlines announced Friday it will pour $550 million over seven years into its base maintenance facility, Tech Ops-Tulsa, making it the largest single capital investment in city history.
Centerpieces of the project will be a new widebody-capable hangar and base support building. The money also is for improvements to the existing infrastructure, including roof replacements, utility and IT upgrades and ramp repairs.
"The base is approaching its 75th year of operations under the American umbrella, and it's most certainly in desperate need of an infrastructure improvement. ... We have literally been taping the facility together and doing the best we could while we studied the way to do this and a path forward," Erik Olund, American's managing director of base maintenance, said by phone.
The revamp will touch every cranny of the facility's 3.3 million square feet of hangar and shop space, Olund said.
"By doing all of this, we extend the life of the base as a whole for the foreseeable future, whether it's 20 or 30 years," Craig Barton, vice president of technical operations, said by phone. "We were at the risk of getting to the point where some facilities may need to be shuttered or pulled back if we didn't make this kind of investment."
Home to more than 5,500 workers, 600 of whom were added in 2019, the base conducts close to half of the overall maintenance work for its nearly 1,000 mainline aircraft. Friday's financial commitment is the biggest made to a maintenance location since the airline's inception.
"The American team in Tulsa and around the world is the best in the business when it comes to operating the safest and most reliable fleet of commercial aircraft," American’s Chairman and CEO Doug Parker said in a statement. "Tulsa has been core to American’s operation for more than 70 years, and this investment in the base, along with the new positions we added at Tech Ops-Tulsa in 2019, will ensure our customers can continue to rely on our fleet as the safest and most reliable for decades to come."
The new 193,000-square-foot hangar will accommodate two wide-body aircraft — or up to six narrow-body aircraft — and will replace two existing hangars no longer equipped to fully hold American’s current aircraft. The 132,000-square-foot base support building will include administrative offices for teams in aircraft overhaul, engineering and others.
More than 900 aircraft visit the Tulsa base annually.
"With this historic investment, American Airlines continues to display their commitment to Oklahoma," Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt said in a statement. "As one of the largest employers in our state, American Airlines plays an integral role in our economy and provides quality jobs for our citizens. I am proud that Oklahoma is one of the top states in the nation for the aviation and aerospace industry, and I am honored to have American Airlines choose Oklahoma, once again, to grow their business."
The base improvements are scheduled to take roughly seven years to complete. Construction on the new hangar and base support building is expected to begin early next year and last about 18 months.
Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum called it "the largest single capital investment in our city’s history. As a city, we are grateful that one of the largest employers in our community is a true partner with the kind of foresight that will create more opportunity in the next era of the aerospace sector."
Mike Neal is president and CEO of the Tulsa Regional Chamber.
"If there were any doubts about American's long-term commitment to Tulsa, this transformative investment should put them to rest once and for all," he said in a statement.
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