Bombardier Expands in Tucson; Adding 100 Jobs
UPDATED - 2:20pm 9/27/2011
As part of Bombardier's plan to grow with market demand, the company
has hired 116 employees to date in 2011, in Tucson, and it continues to
explore opportunities to grow in the future as part of a phased,
long-term collaboration with the Government of Arizona.
Please contact Christina Peikert at 514-855-7813
or christina.peikert@aero.bombardier.com for further information.
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Today
Bombardier announced that its Tucson Service Center is expanding, adding up to 100 new jobs. The jobs will be comprised of airplane
mechanics, production line and other highly-skilled technical positions. Bombardier
is a corporate success story, in 2011 marking 35 years of strong
service and maintenance support at the Tucson Airport. Originally opened
in 1976 as a Learjet aircraft production and services facility, the
Tucson site employed 150 specialists and engineers. Bombardier acquired
the facility in 1990, and soon after expanded to include aircraft
completions. Today, the Tucson service center ranks as the 68th largest
private employer in Tucson, with 630 employees and many more to come
with this announcement. The
announcement was made by Governor Jan Brewer, Gary Martin,Vice
President, Sales, Marketing and Service Programs, Bombardier Customer
Services, Don Cardon, CEO of the Arizona Commerce Authority and Paul
Bonavia, TREO Chairman of the Board and President/CEO of UniSource
Energy Corp./Tucson Electric Power Company. Gary
Martin said, "Bombardier is excited to be working with the Governor's
office to bring about changes that would contribute to the continuing
growth of our world-class Tucson Service Center. This includes work to
address fencing placement at the Service Center. This facility has a
long history of being a good neighbor and jobs driver in the community. Aircraft
maintenance in the Tucson facility is diverse with service provided to
numerous business aircraft customers, and also to airlines on their
Bombardier CRJ and Q400 fleets. Bombardier
continues to see strong demand for its aircraft services and wants to
meet that demand by strategically adding jobs in key service centers
throughout our network. Based on our collaboration with the Governor’s
office, TREO and the ACA, earlier this year, we began an exercise to
bolster capacity and staffing levels at the Service Center. Since then,
we have hired more than 100 folks and are exploring opportunities to
continue our growth in the future. 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. The
facility has the capacity to expand as required and could create
additional jobs in the future. This is all part of our vision to be the
number one aircraft service provider in the industry." "This
is a great story of proactive business development and partnerships,
both regionally and statewide," said Paul Bonavia. "TREO reached out to
Bombardier about 6 months ago as a part of ongoing in-person surveys
with top employers in key targeted industries like aerospace &
defense. The purpose of these visits is to ensure that TREO stays
informed of key issues and opportunities for retention and expansion of
primary job employers -- critical contributors to our local economic
recovery. Business
development staff engaged in expansion discussions, as Bombardier was
considering bringing back a completion element that once existed at the
Tucson facility as well as increasing maintenance lines to allow
Bombardier to fulfill new contracts. At this point, Bombardier
identified several ongoing issues at the Tucson facility and asked for
TREO assistance. First
local management needed help to identify a fencing solution, resolving a
new TSA rule that requires Bombardier employees to be badged when
transversing TAA property (restricting the hiring process and delaying
new employee starts by several weeks). Business development talks
continued at the Paris Air Show in June, and a deal was reached between
the Arizona Commerce Authority, TREO and Bombardier. With
the ACA funding to build the needed fence through the federal stimulus
package, Bombardier can expand faster and meet contract obligations
sooner. The Tucson Airport Authority has also been a fantastic partner
in this project."
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