Two other businesses also expect to add to local hiring by Bombardier
Canadian aircraft maker Bombardier Aerospace is expanding its service center in Tucson, already hiring 116 workers this year while looking for future expansion opportunities here, the company and economic-development officials announced Tuesday.
Overall, it was a good day for jobs in Tucson, as also:
* RMS, a business-to-business accounts receivable outsourcing service, announced it is looking to fill 240 positions at its service center in Tucson.
* Bourque Industries, a tech startup developing a new kind of aluminum alloy for armor plate and industrial uses, announced that this weekend it will christen a manufacturing plant on the east side that could employ up to 200 workers.
(For more on RMS and Bourque, see Page A11.)
Montreal-based Bombardier - which had about 630 Tucson employees at the start of the year - has been adding jobs at key service centers to meet strong demand.
The new jobs are expected to have an annual economic impact of about $28 million, according to Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities Inc. (TREO).
"The Tucson facility is - and will continue to be -an important part of our service center network, especially as our fleet expands and new products enter service," said Gary Martin, vice president of sales, marketing and service programs for Bombardier Customer Services.
"The facility has the capacity to expand as required and could create additional jobs in the future," Martin said in prepared remarks.
Company spokeswoman Christina Peikert said Bombardier has completed its current round of hiring and will add more workers as needed.
"Certainly, as other aircraft enter service in the next few years, we'll look to add capacity," Peikert said.
TREO initially said Tuesday that Bombardier could add up to 200 jobs, but later clarified there is no definite number of potential new hires.
Bombardier's Tucson facility provides service to customers with Learjet and other business aircraft, as well as to airlines that fly Bombardier's CRJ regional jets and Q400 turboprops.
State and local economic-development officials said they have been in talks with Bombardier about issues affecting the company's expansion, including growth concerns at its Tucson International Airport site.
Among those efforts, the Arizona Commerce Authority has allocated $220,000 in federal stimulus money to build a new security fence to allow Bombardier employees to easily move about its part of the airport property without special security badging.
Martin said Bombardier is working with the governor's office "to bring about changes that would contribute to the continuing growth of our world-class Tucson Service Center," including the fencing placement.
The site originally opened in 1976 as a Learjet aircraft production and services facility. Bombardier acquired the facility in 1990, and soon after expanded to include aircraft completions.
Bombardier ranks 68th in the Star 200 survey of major employers in Southern Arizona, with 631 full-time employee equivalents at the start of this year.
The company ranked as high as 18th in 2002, when it had more than 2,000 employees working at an aircraft completion center and service operations here.
But subsequent layoffs and a decision in 2003 to move the completion operations to Wichita, Kan., shrunk its workforce to about 600 by 2006.
Paul Bonavia, CEO of UniSource Energy Corp. and chairman of TREO, said the agency contacted Bombardier about six months ago as part of ongoing, in-person surveys with top employers in key targeted industries like aerospace and defense.
At that point, Bombardier identified several issues at the Tucson facility and asked for help from TREO.
The Arizona Commerce Authority, a quasi-public agency created last year to replace the Arizona Department of Commerce and promote economic development, also worked with Bombardier.
Commerce Authority CEO Don Cardon and TREO officials met with senior Bombardier officials at the Paris Air Show in June and discussed expansion issues.
"This is a great story of proactive business development and partnerships, both regionally and statewide," Bonavia said.
The fence was needed to resolve an issue created by a new Transportation Security Administration rule that requires Bombardier employees to be badged when traversing airport property. That situation restricted the hiring process and delayed new employee starts by several weeks, TREO said.
TREO President Joe Snell, part of the contingent that met with Bombardier officials in Paris, said Bombardier's growth is part of a larger expansion in commercial aerospace - a key target for TREO's retention and expansion efforts.
"We're putting a lot of time and effort on the growth potential for aerospace and especially commercial aerospace," Snell said.
He noted that Sargent Aerospace & Defense is doubling its space in Marana with a new building and B/E Aerospace has expanded its luxury aircraft interiors business.
"We're seeing a lot of pent-up demand, but it's really important that we in Tucson are aggressive about going after them," Snell said.
Bombardier isn't the first company based at the airport to raise infrastructure issues, nor is this the first time local officials have responded.
After Raytheon Missile Systems' decision in July 2010 to locate a new missile plant in Huntsville, Ala., instead of expanding its Tucson airport site, local officials began working on a plan to establish a larger buffer between the company and surrounding development. The county also has worked to alleviate some traffic and access issues.
"We see that whole airport area as a big employment center, and we're going to need some infrastructure improvements there," Snell said, adding that local officials are still discussing the idea of setting up a research park near the airport.
Contact Assistant Business Editor David Wichner at [email protected] or 573-4181.
Bombardier's new jobs
Bombardier's new jobs include airplane mechanics, production- line workers and other skilled technical positions.
The company declined to say how much the new jobs pay. Hourly wages for aircraft mechanics range from about $16 to $33, with a median wage of about $25, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics 2010-2011 Occupational Handbook.
