Fort Worth’s reputation as a center for aviation-related businesses took a step forward June 24 when the City Council agreed to an expansion of a lease with MTU Maintenance, which will make a $120 million investment as part of a 30-year lease and create one of the largest aircraft engine maintenance and testing facilities in North America.
“It’s exciting in Fort Worth to have a company of this size and scale expand its operations and increase its footprint and its ability to deliver for their customers,” said Robert Allen, president and CEO of the Fort Worth Economic Development Partnership.
The 30-year lease contract with the city of Fort Worth calls for MTU Maintenance Fort Worth to expand its North American footprint at Perot Field Fort Worth Alliance Airport, investing $120 million to modernize and upgrade its 43,000-square-meter facility. Along with the investment and expansion, MTU Maintenance expects to hire about 1,200 new employees.
Those new jobs will be highly skilled technical positions, said Allen.
“Adding these capabilities and bringing this type of talent to the forefront just bolsters what was already a very, very robust and strong ecosystem for aviation here in Fort Worth,” he said.
Fort Worth also gets a shoutout as part of the expansion. The facility will be renamed MTU Maintenance Fort Worth, dropping the MTU Maintenance Dallas moniker, effective Sept. 1, pending approvals from regulatory bodies and authorities.
“It’s a significant investment,” said Bill Burton, executive vice president of marketing and development for Hillwood, the developer of AllianceTexas. “Fort Worth and North Texas have a long history in aviation, but it’s going to require a lot of training.”
Tarrant County College’s Northwest Center of Excellence for Aviation, Transportation and Logistics will be one of the area universities playing a big role in helping meet the need for trained aviation technicians, he said.
“That will help take us to the next level,” Burton said, “as well as create some well-paid careers.”
Marilyn Marvin, the city’s property management director, said the new jobs will have an impact on the city’s push for a skilled workforce.
“MTU’s continued investment in its operations will bring thousands of jobs to North Texas and provide an opportunity to collaborate with universities in ways that promote local talent development and continued training for Fort Worth’s highly skilled workforce,” she said in a statement.
In April, MTU Maintenance announced it will add CFM LEAP — a fuel-efficient engine that powers all variants of the Airbus A320neo, Boeing 737 MAX and COMAC C919 aircraft — and GEnx, a widebody jet engine that powers the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and Boeing 747-8, along with maintenance, repair and overhaul services of the new engines. MTU Maintenance also announced at the time it would upgrade MTU’s site in Fort Worth from an on-site service center to a full disassembly, assembly and test facility.
Parent company MTU Aero Engines is based in Munich and provides development, manufacturing and maintenance of military and commercial aircraft engines. The company has more than 13,000 employees worldwide. It opened maintenance operations at the Alliance site in 2023.
Perot Field is owned by the city of Fort Worth and managed by Alliance Air Services, a Hillwood company. It is designed for cargo and corporate aviation and includes a variety of flight support services for private and military aviation.
MTU is not the only company expanding at Perot Field. On June 24, Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer officially opened its new commercial maintenance, repair and overhaul operation there. Embraer will begin operations in an existing hangar, while building a second hangar that is scheduled for completion in 2027.
Embraer’s investment will reach up to $70 million and is expected to create approximately 250 new aviation jobs and boost the company’s service capacity in the U.S. by over 50%, enhancing support for its commercial jet fleet nationwide.
Allen said the announcements help cement Fort Worth’s reputation as an aviation and defense center, something which was formalized June 17 when Gov. Greg Abbott signed legislation designating the city as the aviation and defense capital of Texas.
“To have a company like MTU announce an expansion like this is, frankly, proof that we are the aviation and defense leader in the state of Texas,” he said.
Bob Francis is business editor for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at bob.francis@fortworthreport.org.
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