Airplane servicing company, AAR Corp., is spreading its wings

Nov. 08--Bret Burnside starts each day by walking a mile inside the massive airplane maintenance complex of AAR Corp., checking on the progress made by his workforce of skilled mechanics and technicians.

As the vice president and general manager for AAR in Indianapolis, he wishes he could find hundreds more just like them.

Burnside has 570 employees working on jet airplanes, but he also has 150 to 200 immediate job openings at AAR's base at Indianapolis International Airport. The company has 6,000 employees worldwide but needs 600 more.

Even though unemployment stubbornly hovers around 9 percent, airplane maintenance companies such as Illinois-based AAR struggle to find qualified applicants for jobs that pay $30,000 to $80,000 a year, depending on education and experience.

It's something that a recent 22-page study by AAR attributes to the "mid-skills gap in middle America."

The report details the company's attempts in each of its cities to team with local colleges and offer part-time working hours, tuition reimbursement, benefits, on-the-job training programs and other incentives to recruit and train people for aviation careers.

In Indiana, several colleges and proprietary schools offer training leading to Federal Aviation Administration certifications for airframe and powerplant mechanics. Vincennes and Purdue universities have a school at the airport, literally within view of the AAR base.

AAR also offers some entry-level jobs, which many workers use to gain some skills and eventually go to college to become full-fledged aviation mechanics.

One of those new hires at AAR, Ben Bingham, started work on the utility crew three months ago, a job that can include stripping the seats and interiors of large passenger planes to expose wiring and other parts for service.

"I had been unemployed and was just looking for something to take off. And I had an interest in aviation," said Bingham, 40. "After six months, I can qualify for tuition reimbursement, so then I'll finish (aviation mechanic's school) and get certified. This is a job that can turn your life toward a goal."

In Indianapolis, AAR overhauls and inspects large planes, including the Boeing 737s and 757s, for Southwest and other airlines.

The company moved into the former United Airlines maintenance base in 2004. Gradually, life has come back to the 1.6 million-square-foot building renamed the Indianapolis Maintenance Center.

Renae Holland, 38, a single parent with three children, has been on AAR's utility crew six weeks and signed up for a program to learn how to work with sheet metal. In airplanes, sheet metal work is a critical skill.

"I've tried several jobs. Here, I get a sense of pride coming to work," she said.

When they're ready for college-level classes and practical experience, workers can almost walk from the AAR base to the Aviation Technical Center run by Vincennes and Purdue.

Mike Gehrich, director of aviation for Vincennes, said there are several reasons for a shortage of certified aviation mechanics and technicians.

Other industries need the same mechanical skills and have lured workers away, he said. The military is not training as many for civilian work, and the civilian aviation and travel industry was hurt by the 9/11 terrorists attacks.

"Also, the (Vincennes and Purdue) center was started in 1993 to train the workforce when United opened its maintenance base here. When United closed (in bankruptcy in 2003) and put 3,500 mechanics out on the street, that left a bad taste for aviation in the community," he said.

Some of that legacy is fading, and people are looking again at a blue-collar job with the potential for $80,000 a year or more, Gehrich said.