A German aircraft engine maintenance and repair company has expanded in Fort Worth, completing a nine-figure investment and advancing plans to create more than a thousand jobs.
Munich-based MTU Aero Engines AG opened its newest operation July 8 at a 462,000-square-foot building at 2100 Eagle Parkway in AllianceTexas, Hillwood’s 27,000-acre master-planned development in north Fort Worth. The building used to be the site of American Airlines’ original maintenance base and a Rolls Royce engine plant. MTU signed a 30-year lease with the city of Fort Worth and relocated to the site in 2023.
The company states the new operation is a $120 million investment that will create 1,200 jobs, mostly consisting of engine mechanics. The company’s first customer is Brazilian airline GOL Linhas Aéreas — its workers will maintain and repair its first CFM International LEAP-1B engine, which are used in Boeing 737 Max aircraft. GOL operates more than 60 Boeing 737 Max aircraft powered by the LEAP engines.
Gernot Sell, general manager and president of MTU Maintenance Fort Worth Inc., said the deal to expand in Fort Worth was years in the making and described the site as a gem due to its existing engine test cell and aviation infrastructure.
“We thought that’s an opportunity, and we made a bold move, moving into this location without having enough customers yet by that time,” Sell said.
MTU executives such as Sell bet that the market for LEAP engines will expand, and the site will become the premier maintenance, repair and operations hub in North America. MTU eventually wants to ramp up operations to maintain, operate and repair 180 engines at a time.
“You will see pretty soon that already 30,000 engines have been sold,” he said. “That’s the biggest aviation engine program ever in the world. So, there will be a huge aftermarket that needs to be established right now, and we are at the right time, the right spot to serve the market here.”
To prepare the emerging market, MTU is hiring. That’s Coree Brickle’s job: he’s a senior recruiter for the Fort Worth site. A little over 200 employees are already working at the building, which means it could have more than 1,400 employees by the end of the year, Brickle said. He visited about 15 high schools across North Texas in the spring to help with the recruiting push.
Many employees working entry-level positions haven’t worked on an engine before, he said. MTU Maintenance adopted an in-house training program that the company implemented in Fort Worth. MTU hired four full-time instructors and every two months brings a class of 24 students to go through paid training. They have to take weekly quizzes and exams to move on to working on the engines. Most candidates come from word of mouth, he said.
“When we bring someone in, they’re selling that for me, so when I’m talking to somebody, they already have an internal presence of telling them what it’s like to work here,” Brickle said.
From a real estate perspective, Bill Burton, executive vice president of marketing and development for Hillwood, said MTU Maintenance is a good deal that’s hard to come by. The existing test cell infrastructure, which tests the engines before being installed in an airplane, was a big factor in making the deal work, he noted.
“They’re very challenging projects to attract, because they’re very capital-intensive, and most of the time companies are looking for existing facilities,” Burton said. “This engine test cell is a big part. … It’s a very unique facility in here, really, in the world, but certainly in North America.”
The Alliance area has become a hot spot for aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul operations. Companies such as Embraer and Gulfstream have also expanded maintenance facilities in the area.
