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www.AviationPros.com 39 ast December AMT attended the grand opening ceremony for AAR's newest airframe MRO facil- ity located on the Chicago Rockford International Airport (RFD) in northern Illinois. The two mas - sive side-by-side hangars were impressive. The 238,000-square-foot facility consists of two 10-story hangars each measuring 300 feet by 300 feet with common areas between them for offices, tool and equipment rooms, work control centers, and employee break rooms. The hangars are capable of holding the largest wide-body airliners. Aircraft maintenance work is ramping up and AAR is currently conducting work for a tier-one airline and, previous to its arrival, completed work for a large cargo carrier. Additionally it has a line of work scheduled for the next several months. At the time of the grand opening there was a core group of around a dozen employees assigned to the new facility, and at the time this article was written that number was up to about 50. THE ROCKFORD APPEAL Needless to say there's a lot of excitement and proud people associated with this facility. During the opening ceremony, David Storch, AAR's chairman, president and chief executive officer, remarked, "I'd be very disappointed if, at the end of the day, this was not a premier maintenance operation. The possibilities of being here in Rockford, I think, far outweigh the benefits we have elsewhere around the country." Wayne Jamroz is AAR's general manager of the new Rockford facility and proudly commented for this article, "The city, businesses, and people of Rockford have built one of the finest MRO facili- ties in the country. The experience thus far has been nothing short of amazing. We understand the attention that goes along with this, as well as the responsibility that has been bestowed upon us AIRCRAFT MAINTENANCE work is ramping up at the AAR Rockford, IL, MRO facility. A AR CORP to make this facility as successful and supportive to the community as we can. We are working day in and day out to capture the right work and to build our reputation here as the premier wide-body maintenance facility in the country and hopefully the world. We are putting together a world class team in an effort to achieve these goals. As I have said to our new employees, this is the beginning of something Great!" There are a few reasons that made Rockford an ideal location for AAR to open its newest MRO. Rockford has a history of aerospace connections and companies located there, and building the new MRO has reinforced the area's connection with the aviation industry. Troy Jonas, vice president of MRO Services, says, "The airport authority, along with state and local government, was instrumental in working with us and building a state-of-the-art facility in this area not far from Chicago." AAR's headquarters is located near Chicago. WORK AND WORKFORCE PROJECTIONS When asked about the plans for work at the new location Jonas describes a potential blend of nar- row and wide-body aircraft heavy checks. "We are focused on wide-body aircraft, however, with the large capacity available to us, we could also add in several narrow-body aircraft along with wide-body aircraft." He goes on to say, "The facility can accom- modate two Boeing 747s, eight Boeing 737-800s, or four Boeing 787s. The station can even hangar the new double-deck, wide-body, four-engine Airbus A380. We expect at full capacity to see 750,000 to 1 million man-hours of work per year." When asked about AAR's projections for heavy maintenance work over the next five to 10 years Jonas says, "AAR anticipates low single-digit growth within North America and high single- digit growth outside the United States, particularly