American Airlines to Invest $550 million in Tulsa Maintenance Base

[Rattle Trap]

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.

https://www.tulsaworld.com/business/american-airlines-to-invest-million-to-improve-expand-tulsa-maintenance/article_f8f73ac9-2026-5bd7-8ca6-7f47cff4543e.amp.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=user-share&__twitter_impression=true

[ComeOnBenjals]

Wow! This is huge... great for the Tulsa ecnonomy.

[DTowner]

Wow! This is huge... great for the Tulsa ecnonomy.

Indeed.  Tulsa's airport may be its most underutilized economic assets because it has the potential to be so much more than what it is.

[SXSW]

Indeed.  Tulsa's airport may be its most underutilized economic assets because it has the potential to be so much more than what it is.

In what way?  More aerospace industries, more airline routes or both?

[Jacobei]

In what way?  More aerospace industries, more airline routes or both?

Utilizing the port of Catoosa and TIA together as a Multimodal hub is the kind of thing that could be a great boon.  If we manufactured anything in the US anymore, that is.

[Laramie]

Great news for Tulsa.  This is an American Airlines maintenance facility that is committed to Oklahoma's Green Country.

               https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z99E8ApbOZ8

Should add to Tulsa's economic boom from 2021 to 2027.

[DTowner]

In what way?  More aerospace industries, more airline routes or both?

Sorry, I was somewhat cryptic in my comment.  I think TIA is underutilized in two primary ways.  First, passenger use is bad.  I recently read a Chamber publication that showed passenger traffic every year since 1995.  From memory, 1995 was ~3.4 million.  2018, the last full year of data, was ~3.2 million (and that was with steady growth over the past decade or so).  If your airport is less busy now than it was 25 years ago despite significant facilities improvements and population growth, then it is severely underutilized.  I get that flights from NW Arkansas and more recently Stillwater are eating into TIA's regional draw, but the absolute drop in airport usage, much less the failure to keep pace with population growth, is a huge economic development miss.  Moreover, lower passenger usage makes it harder to get direct flights to important cities and that further depresses usage.

Second, drive around the airport, particularly up north Memorial and Sheridan and it is shocking how many empty buildings, scraped foundations and vacant lots are in the area.  Most similarly sized towns have vibrant business districts around their airports with light manufacturing, warehousing, etc.  Even worse, the amount of business activity around the airport appears to have actually declined over the past few decades.  Tulsa has a pretty solid aerospace industry.  What we don't have is the other businesses that you often see around an airport that utilize or need to be near a transportation hub.

AA's investment in Tulsa is awesome, but it will not fix either of these problems.  Perhaps, however, it will help draw the attention of others to take a look at TIA and the surrounding area as a ripe destination for a wide variety of businesses.

[SXSW]

That is pretty shocking that TIA has seen that amount of decrease.  I get that the Tulsa metro has seen pretty tepid growth but it seems like the number of flights has mostly remained the same with some notable exceptions.  I remember there used to be daily nonstop flights to Washington Dulles and Newark on United that have been discontinued.  Same for daily nonstops to Detroit on Delta and the Saturday-only service to Miami.  Southwest has really shrunk since the Wright Amendment ended with big reductions to Dallas Love and Houston Hobby. 

[swake]

That is pretty shocking that TIA has seen that amount of decrease.  I get that the Tulsa metro has seen pretty tepid growth but it seems like the number of flights has mostly remained the same with some notable exceptions.  I remember there used to be daily nonstop flights to Washington Dulles and Newark on United that have been discontinued.  Same for daily nonstops to Detroit on Delta and the Saturday-only service to Miami.  Southwest has really shrunk since the Wright Amendment ended with big reductions to Dallas Love and Houston Hobby. 

A lot of it is the growth of XNA over the last 15-20 years.

[SXSW]

A lot of it is the growth of XNA over the last 15-20 years.

I used to know people from that area that would drive to Tulsa to fly Southwest.  They arguably have better coverage in certain markets than TUL like daily non-stops to New York LaGuardia, Philadelphia, Washington National, San Francisco and Miami with nearly half the metro population.  Obviously Wal-Mart plays a big role there.

[Oil Capital]

Sorry, I was somewhat cryptic in my comment.  I think TIA is underutilized in two primary ways.  First, passenger use is bad.  I recently read a Chamber publication that showed passenger traffic every year since 1995.  From memory, 1995 was ~3.4 million.  2018, the last full year of data, was ~3.2 million (and that was with steady growth over the past decade or so).  If your airport is less busy now than it was 25 years ago despite significant facilities improvements and population growth, then it is severely underutilized.  I get that flights from NW Arkansas and more recently Stillwater are eating into TIA's regional draw, but the absolute drop in airport usage, much less the failure to keep pace with population growth, is a huge economic development miss.  Moreover, lower passenger usage makes it harder to get direct flights to important cities and that further depresses usage.

It appears to be even worse than you think.  According to the airport's website, passenger traffic in 2018 was 3,048,357.  In 2019, it was essentially flat, at 3,053,532.  And 2020 is not off to a good start.  January traffic was down 4.16%

[DowntownDan]

It appears to be even worse than you think.  According to the airport's website, passenger traffic in 2018 was 3,048,357.  In 2019, it was essentially flat, at 3,053,532.  And 2020 is not off to a good start.  January traffic was down 4.16%

All airports will be down this year because of corona virus. It's probably not a good year for comparative data.

[DTowner]

It appears to be even worse than you think.  According to the airport's website, passenger traffic in 2018 was 3,048,357.  In 2019, it was essentially flat, at 3,053,532.  And 2020 is not off to a good start.  January traffic was down 4.16%

Yeah, I was going from memory and my optimistic side was showing.....

COVID-19 has already hit airline industry and, as of now, it looks to only get worse.

[DTowner]

I used to know people from that area that would drive to Tulsa to fly Southwest.  They arguably have better coverage in certain markets than TUL like daily non-stops to New York LaGuardia, Philadelphia, Washington National, San Francisco and Miami with nearly half the metro population.  Obviously Wal-Mart plays a big role there.

A few years ago, my niece got married in Tulsa.  She lived in NYC at the time and all of her NYC friends flew into NW Ark. and drove to Tulsa because it was a direct flight and cheaper than flying into to Tulsa. 

[Oil Capital]

All airports will be down this year because of corona virus. It's probably not a good year for comparative data.

Yes, indeed, COVID-19 is hitting air travel hard, but that hardly explains Tulsa's dismal January performance.

For comparison, January 2020 airport traffic among regional cities of somewhat similar scale:

TUL:  Down 4.6%
OKC:  Up 2.6%
OMA:  Up 5.4%
LIT:    Up 3.3%
ICT:   Up 5.8%
MEM:  Up 8.89%
DSM:  Up 8.5%