Dec. 18--AAR Aircraft Services' new maintenance base in Duluth has been operating less than a month, but 100 new jobs have already been created.
That's 100 down, 125 jobs to go.
AAR's hiring is on schedule to create 225 jobs within a year to operate three production lines servicing Air Canada's fleet of 89 Airbus A320 jets, according to Dany Kleiman, an AAR Aviation Services Group vice president.
One maintenance line does heavy maintenance on one narrow-bodied plane at a time. The base's 10-hour shifts start daily at 6:30 a.m., followed by another 10-hour crew.
The new maintenance, repair and overhaul base has brought new life to the 188,000-square-foot, city-owned facility that has been largely vacant since Northwest Airlines moved out in 2005, putting hundreds out of work.
Now, with management in place, AAR is ready for another round of hires to staff a second maintenance line.
It's putting the call out for aviation maintenance technicians in a recruiting effort that has expanded to the Twin Cities and throughout the state of Minnesota, said Chris Mason, a company spokesman.
"We're looking to fill 60 positions," he said. "That will enable us to form another line of maintenance."
The 100-job milestone was reached as crews completed two and a half weeks of heavy maintenance on the base's first Air Canada Airbus.
"It was exciting," lead inspector Steven Klicka said of the jet's arrival. "Seeing an airplane back in there was so exciting. It was nice to see an Airbus back in the hangar."
The facility was built in the early 1990s to service Airbus planes for Northwest Airlines.
Klicka, 47, is among the former Northwest maintenance base workers to return.
"The guys we worked with before were a tight group," he said. "We hope to get more back. The more the word gets out, the more guys will come back."
Klicka is moving his family back to Minnesota from Arkansas for the job.
"It's home," he said. "It's Northern Minnesota, and everyone wants to be here."
Susan Drumsta of Hermantown is among the returnees. The aircraft maintenance planner had worked both at the Northwest maintenance base and for Cirrus Design.
"I've been waiting patiently for somebody to come back into the building," she said of the long-vacated base.
Drumsta, 56, discovered she wasn't the only one. The first week on the job was like old home week, she said, reuniting her with people she had worked with at Northwest and Cirrus.
"Everybody here is very positive," she said. "We're all very motivated for AAR to be successful. Like myself, many other employees have been waiting for heavy maintenance to come back in the area. We're thrilled to be working in the aviation industry again."
Company officials say they are pleased with the startup and the team they've assembled.
Kleiman said the base is on course to have the second maintenance line operating by March and the third sometime this spring.
Copyright 2012 - Duluth News Tribune
