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Gulfstream to expand in Dallas-Fort Worth area


February 24, 2020  By Wings Staff

Derek Zimmerman, president of Gulfstream Customer Support, describes plans for the company’s Fort Worth MRO expansion. (Photo: Gulfstream)

Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. on February 20 announced it will expand its operations in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area with the construction of a service centre at Fort Worth Alliance Airport. The facility, which will complement Gulfstream’s presence at Dallas Love Field, is expected to open by the fall of 2021 and will create approximately 50 jobs.

Alliance Airport is part of AllianceTexas, a 26,000-acre development in northeast Fort Worth and home to more than 500 companies. Alliance, the site of major Amazon and FedEx shipping operations, was considered the country’s first industrial airport when it 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.

Gulfstream plans to invest more than US$35 million to build what will be a nearly 160,000-square-foot (14,864-square-metre) maintenance, repair and overhaul facility at Alliance. The building will include hangar space, back shops and employee and customer offices. Construction is scheduled to begin in the third quarter of 2020.

Approximately 150 to 200 of Gulfstream’s 230 Customer Support employees at Love Field are expected to relocate to Alliance, about 35 miles away, while about 30 to 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.

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“Alliance Airport is a great location,” said Derek Zimmerman, president, Gulfstream Customer Support. “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.”

Personnel from Tarrant County College’s Erma C. Johnson Hadley Northwest Campus Center of Excellence for Aviation, Logistics and Transportation attended the expansion announcement event at Alliance, along with local dignitaries, including U.S. Rep. Kay Granger. The school’s 163,500-sq-ft/15,190-sq-m facility at Alliance is home to a Federal Aviation Administration-approved maintenance program.

Gulfstream opened maintenance facilities in 2019 in Appleton, Wisconsin; Savannah; and Van Nuys, California; and will open two more this year in Palm Beach, Florida; and Farnborough, England. The company’s in-service fleet is more than 2,900 aircraft worldwide. More than 50 Gulfstream aircraft are based in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

“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 specialized area aviation training programs and provide them with access to a sizable talented workforce in a unique environment that fosters further growth.”

Gulfstream’s expansion at Alliance Airport is subject to the approval of the board of directors of parent company General Dynamics.

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