An American Airlines Boeing 737 at the carrier's Tulsa base.
American Airlines plans to add 500 maintenance jobs to its roster to support additional lines of airframe heavy check lines.
Some of the changes include moving an Airbus C11 check line from its Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, base to Charlotte, North Carolina, and adding an Airbus S check to the Pittsburgh base. The Tulsa, Oklahoma, base will be adding Boeing 737 and 787 base maintenance visits.
Greg Emerson, American Airlines’ VP of maintenance and facilities, says the jobs will enable capacity and capability expansion, as well as “build our pipeline of future maintenance team members.”
American operates more than 880 aircraft, with the largest fleets being 737 family and Airbus A321 family aircraft, according to Aviation Week Network’s Fleet & MRO Forecast. The 787 is its largest widebody fleet. MRO demand in 2024 is about $3 billion, according to the forecast.
Of the 500 jobs, at least 385 will be licensed aviation maintenance technician (AMT) positions.
The new positions include: 133 in Charlotte, including 122 AMTs; 44 in Pittsburgh, including 40 AMTs; and 321 in Tulsa, including 227 AMTs.
The 321 maintenance jobs in Tulsa are in addition to the 300 it recently added through a $22 million grant from Oklahoma’s Business Expansion Incentive Program in 2023.
The labor market is very tight for maintenance technicians globally, but American Airlines has been proactive in recruiting and engaging A&P students while they’re still in school. In particular, it supports students during their studies at Tulsa Tech, West Los Angeles College and the Aviation Institute of Maintenance, and interviews top performers upon receiving their license. It also visits campuses, provides hangar visits and donates aircraft parts to foster interest early on.
American Airlines has sponsored the annual Aerospace Maintenance Competition, organized by the non-profit Aerospace Maintenance Council, at Aviation Week Network’s MRO Americas, since its inception, as well.
The airline’s announcement on Sept. 9 coincides with these positions being posted to its website.
