‘Bonds remain strong’
United says expansion of maintenance facility at Bush Intercontinental shows airline is still committed to city
UNITED Airlines began work on an expanded maintenance facility at Bush Intercontinental Airport on Tuesday, promising about 200 new permanent jobs while emphasizing its commitment to the Houston hub.
The $162 million project, paid mostly by United with a $12.5 million contribution from the Houston Airport System, will double the square footage of its existing maintenance facility and provide hangar space for additional wide-body planes when aircraft need more than routine care.
“The technical operations center in Houston is going to be the largest we have in our system,” said Gavin Molloy, United’s vice president of corporate real estate.
During a groundbreaking ceremony, Mayor Sylvester Turner said the move shows that “the bonds remain strong” with the airline six years after it merged with Houston-based Continental Airlines and moved the combined headquarters to Chicago. Earlier this year, United shifted some planes away from Houston due to a drop in corporate energy travelers.
But in recent visits to Houston, CEO Oscar Munoz reiterated the airline’s support for Houston, its largest hub, and said planes would return once the energy sector recovers.
“Our commitment to Houston is deep and long-lasting,” he said in August. “Period. End of sentence. No new paragraph.”
The project announced Tuesday, expected to be com-
pleted in late 2018, will add 200,000 square feet of hangar space for maintaining wide-body aircraft, including Boeing 767s, 777s, 787s and Airbus A350s.
It will also house a new warehouse distribution center, technical services building and administrative offices.
The work undertaken here won’t be quick, routine maintenance. Molloy said it will be more intensive projects that United schedules periodically for its aircraft.
Houston-based airline consultant Pete Garcia was encouraged by United’s investment in its operations. He said the new facility could further improve the airline’s on-time performance.
“The better maintained the aircraft are, the more reliable they are,” Garcia said.
And since Houston is both a major United hub and a centrally located city, Garcia said the new facility will allow planes to return to operation more quickly.
The facility will boost local job security, too, said Bob Clever, president of Teamsters Local 19, which represents United mechanics and flight simulator technicians in Houston.
“It’s great that we will be bringing in more work for our technicians,” Clever said.
United works closely with the Houston Airport System on a skilled training course for this type of work, so Molloy said there will be a natural flow of potential job candidates to fill the new positions.
Overall, United has more than 14,000 Houston-based employees.
“These are well-paying jobs,” Mario Diaz, director of the Houston Airport System, said during the groundbreaking ceremony. “These are the type of jobs that drive the economy of Houston, and they are the kinds of jobs cities across the country seek to bring to their communities.”
Like Turner, he noted the ongoing partnership with United, and previously Continental, in improving Bush Intercontinental.
In 2003, the airline helped develop the international Terminal E and a fifth runway. It completed the renovation of Terminal C in 2010, and the Terminal B South Concourse was completed in 2013.
United is currently building a new Terminal C North concourse. The $244 million, 265,000-squarefoot facility will open early next year.
“This city will do everything that we can to make sure that United succeeds,” the mayor said. “When United succeeds, Houston does extremely well.”