Sky’s the limit for aircraft mechanics as industry soars

DULUTH, Minn. — Kieran Cummings has a year of school left, but he’s already making a living repairing commercial jets. After a day of classes at one hangar at the airport here, he heads to another where he works late into the night — some caffeine required.

“We’re tearing these things apart, and we’re doing everything,” said the Lake Superior College student. “The experience, you can’t beat it.”

It takes a lot of people on the ground to keep airplanes in the sky, and a shortage of aircraft mechanics around the country is causing employers to get creative and some school programs to swell.

Minneapolis Community and Technical College has seen enrollment grow for its aircraft maintenance program, located inside the Delta Air Lines hangar at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. The airline has also partnered with dozens of other schools around the country to “mentor and source the next generation of aircraft maintenance technicians” as it faces more than 2,000 retirements in the next decade, said Delta spokesperson Morgan Durrant.

Across North America, Boeing estimates there will be demand for 193,000 aircraft mechanics over the next 20 years.

But aviation programs are costly to maintain and still hard to recruit for. The University of Minnesota Crookston recently suspended its program — which had been around since the school was founded in 1967 — citing increasing expenses and only modest enrollment. Northland Community and Technical College in Thief River Falls has seen its aviation enrollment shrink as a strong economy deters those who might want to go back to school to change careers.

Industry support has been crucial to building the workforce pipeline.

The rest is up to students.

“If you don’t get a job in aviation right now, it’s because you’re not trying,” LSC instructor William Beecroft said.

“Everybody is begging for mechanics,” said Lynn McGlynn, aerospace case manager and academic adviser at Northland Community and Technical College, whose phone rings often with companies looking for recruits. “These companies are going to have to start giving incentives because there’s so much competition out there.”

Aviation services company AAR is looking at offering free mountain bike and kayak rentals on top of tuition assistance and other perks to lure hires. With steady work from United Airlines and a 20-year lease recently signed at the hangar that was once home to Northwest Airlines, the proactive approach is a necessary one.

“We’re doing a lot of different things to try to attract people to Duluth, and also getting people to change careers,” said Pete DeSutter, AAR’s director of business development.

The publicly traded company, based in Illinois with operations around the world, employs about 350 people in Duluth today. DeSutter wants that number closer to 400, especially with a fourth maintenance line opening this month. Luckily for DeSutter, a lot of new hires are staying: “I would say they’re coming in faster than they’re leaving.”
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from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/2mePhac