BizJet Moves Engine Disassembly Plant To Tulsa

A Tulsa aircraft overhaul business is expanding its workforce and capabilities. BizJet has moved an engine disassembly business to Tulsa.

The company has moved into the Green Valley Center in Tulsa. It's an operation that BizJet had in the Philippines but decided to move here to be closer to their customers.

Tulsa based BizJet has almost 30 years of history at Tulsa's airport. It's grown into a company that can do everything from gas up a plane, to tear it apart and rebuild it.

Last October, the company took on a new job, tearing down a Lufthansa 747 into very valuable scrap, the individual parts.

Now, BizJet is expanding the Tulsa operation with a separate engine disassembly service. It's outfitted a 40,000 square foot shop in east Tulsa with the cranes and other equipment to handle the largest aircraft engines.

In the new facility the company will take aircraft engines and disassemble them into individual parts. The pieces have lots of life left in them, so they'll return to the owner, and the parts will keep on flying.

"And they can go right into further service with other engines, either for our airline, Lufthansa, or with many other airlines around the world," said BizJet Vice President Criss Berry.

Berry said the company brought the work in from overseas because of Tulsa's workforce.

"We have a tremendous technical aircraft engine, technical pool to draw from," said Berry.

Tulsa's Mayor and top Chamber of Commerce officials went to Germany 18 months ago on a recruiting trip that included talks with Lufthansa. They talked up the Tulsa aviation workforce that's now estimated at 30,000 people.

Mike Neal with the Tulsa Chamber, said, "So it's wonderful to see companies like BizJet, who have been here, who have expanded and come up with new lines of business and are ready to hire people, not only today, but to be in a position to hire people for the next several years."

And these jobs will be added in over the next few years. Bur right now they've moved about 15 people from the airport to the new shop at Pine and Garnett and they'll be hiring up to 60 people to get it fully staffed.