The numbers are huge.
More than 5,000 people are employed by the American Airlines Base Maintenance Facility, also known as Tech Ops – Tulsa, for an estimated annual economic impact of $3.3 billion.
Upgrades currently underway at the base are budgeted at $400 million. And jobs added in 2023 and announced in late 2024 will total 621, thanks in part to a $22 million Business Expansion Incentive Program grant from the State of Oklahoma.
The capital project “really helps solidify American’s investment in the Tulsa region,” says Brien Thorstenberg, vice president for economic development for the Tulsa Regional Chamber of Commerce. “If those jobs were to leave, it would be very difficult to get those jobs back in the community. These are very high-quality jobs. These are fantastic jobs, and a fantastic employer.”
Ed Sangricco, managing director of base maintenance, says that $400 million worth of improvement projects adds up to a hefty list: new roofs, boilers, chillers and cooling towers alone will total $81 million. All the water and sewer lines are being replaced, and employee spaces such as restrooms and breakrooms will be re-done. New IT infrastructure calls for switching to fiber optics, and the plating shop is being modernized, too.
“It’s all being painted, with new signage,” says Sangricco. “It’s really making a big difference. When they are finished, you won’t recognize the place.”
Most of the infrastructure work will be completed in the next one to two years, and more projects are on the horizon.
“We are also considering building a new hangar,” says Sangricco.
And all those upgrades are putting even more Oklahomans to work. “There are a lot of contractors on this base every single day,” he mentions.
The 246-acre base opened at Tulsa International Airport in 1946, having been moved from LaGuardia in New York.
“The hangars were already here; there was a big military presence here,” Sangricco says. “It was the perfect location.”
In addition to heavy maintenance work on about 400 aircraft every year, functions at the six-hangar base include engine overhauls, work on landing gear and components, a brake and wheel center and a large supply center.
“I’m incredibly proud of this operation,” Sangricco says. “I think the secret to our success and the reason we are growing is the people. Last year, we signed a formal agreement with Tulsa Tech that guaranteed their top performers the chance to interview here.”
The facility recruits nationwide, but the Oklahoma hires are the people most likely to stay, Sangricco says.
“The Tulsa base is very generational,” he says. “We have fathers and sons, even grandfathers and sons and grandsons. Everybody knows everybody. And with an average pay rate in the $58 to $60 an hour range, it’s a pretty big economic powerhouse.”
The facility is very connected to the community, Sangricco says, with employee groups doing volunteer work at sites such as food banks, Habitat for Humanity and veterans’ hospitals.
All told, between the direct and indirect economic boon and what the employees contribute to the quality of life of the area through their volunteerism, “it’s just really a comprehensive impact to the Tulsa region,” Thorstenberg says.
