Gulfstream Aerospace is building a new service centre at Fort Worth Alliance Airport, which is expected to open by the Autumn of 2021, creating around 50 jobs. The move will expand the company’s operations in the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas, complementing the existing site at Dallas Love Field.
To help meet the needs of its growing customer fleet, Gulfstream will invest more than US$35m to build an MRO facility at Alliance that will be nearly 160,000ft² (14,864m²). The building will include hangar space, back shops and employee and customer offices. Groundbreaking is scheduled for the third quarter of 2020.
Approximately 150-200 of Gulfstream’s 230 customer support employees at Love Field are expected to relocate to Alliance, about 35 miles away, while about 30-80 employees will remain at Love Field to continue to provide on-site and transient operators with maintenance and service. Gulfstream’s mid-cabin aircraft completions business in Dallas, which includes about 350 employees and five hangars, will remain at Love Field.
“Alliance Airport is a great location,” said Derek Zimmerman, president, Gulfstream Customer Support (pictured above). “It is an established airport for business aviation operators, has an outstanding infrastructure and is appropriately sized for our operations. It is also the home of a growing aviation school, which will help us continue to develop both new and existing employees. The additional maintenance capacity we can provide at Alliance, the state-of-the-art facility and substantial job creation are great news for our customers, our employees and the community.”
“We warmly welcome Gulfstream to the AllianceTexas aviation and aerospace community,” said Mike Berry, president of Hillwood, developer of AllianceTexas. “As one of the world’s most respected aerospace companies, Gulfstream becomes part of Fort Worth’s storied history of aviation and aerospace innovation. Their expansion here will allow them to leverage specialised area aviation training programmes and provide them with access to a sizable talented workforce in a unique environment that fosters further growth. We look forward to a long relationship and sharing in their continued success.”
Attending the expansion announcement event at Alliance were state and local dignitaries, including US representative Kay Granger, as well as personnel from Tarrant County College’s Erma C. Johnson Hadley Northwest Campus Center of Excellence for Aviation, Logistics and Transportation. The school’s 163,500ft² (15,190m²) facility at Alliance is home to an FAA-approved maintenance programme.
Gulfstream opened maintenance facilities in 2019 in Appleton (Wisconsin), Savannah (Georgia) and Van Nuys (California), and will open two more in 2020 in Palm Beach (Florida) and Farnborough, UK. The company’s in-service fleet stands at more than 2,900 aircraft worldwide. More than 50 Gulfstream aircraft are based in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Alliance, the site of major Amazon and FedEx shipping operations, opened in 1989. More than 300 flights a day come in and out of the airport, including business jets, military, cargo and general aviation traffic. Alliance Airport is part of AllianceTexas, a 26,000-acre development in northeast Fort Worth and home to more than 500 companies.
Gulfstream’s expansion at Alliance Airport is subject to the approval of the board of directors of parent company General Dynamics.
