‘A reassurance’: American Airlines adding 300 jobs to Tulsa base

TULSA, Okla. — American Airlines announced on Sept. 9 it will bring hundreds of new positions to its Tech Ops-Tulsa maintenance base.

“This is our largest heavy maintenance facility in the American Airlines network,” Vice President of Maintenance and Facilities Greg Emerson told 2 News Tuesday.

“We’ll be adding a (Boeing) 787 heavy maintenance line as well as another 737 line. So yes, adding the resources means we’ll add additional work.”

That work means 321 total openings across the repair hangars touching Tulsa International Airport’s runways. 227 of the jobs will be Aviation Maintenance Technician (AMT) positions.

American employs about 5,000 people in Tulsa already, and inspects about 400 aircraft annually.

However, according to Emerson, the bump in all those categories by the end of 2024 proves that Tulsa’s potential is looking up.

“We have a partnership with Tulsa Tech. They help feed the next generation of workforce for places like American Airlines Tulsa base maintenance,” Emerson added. “So we see there are growth opportunities in the state of Oklahoma.”

That growth is sparked by programs like Tulsa Tech’s aerospace and manufacturing classes at East Central High School, just 12 minutes down the road in east Tulsa.
“(These programs) give more opportunities, and it funds a lot of stuff like this that teach and creates a pipeline of educated and talented workforce to work for them,” Tulsa Tech instructor John White said.

The Tulsa area stands to gain for those in and out of school, young and old, man and woman, according to Levi Patrick of the Tulsa Regional STEM Alliance.

“This is just kind of a reassurance and further commitment to that idea that really, anybody can pursue STEM with whatever their interests are right here in our community,” Patrick said.

American Airlines plans to expand its workforce in Pittsburgh and Charlotte as well, but Tulsa’s facility makes up about 3/5 of the jobs added.

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