AAR Expands School Partnerships To Boost MRO Workforce Pipeline

CHICAGO—AAR Corp. has expanded its support of the Aviation Institute of Maintenance’s Chicago campus as part of efforts to develop and secure its future workforce pipeline.

AAR has donated $25,000 toward scholarships for 10 Aviation Institute of Maintenance (AIM) students in Chicago and sponsored a classroom at the campus, which is located in the McKinley Park neighborhood on the city’s south side.

During a scholarship ceremony on June 12, Troy Primus, general manager of airframe MRO at AAR’s Rockford, Illinois, facility, spoke to students about the importance of supporting the next generation of technicians. He noted that AAR has grown to more than 400 technicians in Rockford from 30 around six years ago, and the company continues to expand its workforce throughout its network.

While AAR says it is “in the green” on staffing at its Rockford facility, it continues proactively seeking workforce pipeline partnerships in the Chicagoland area to account for retirements and attrition. Primus noted that one of the company’s major airline customers has also signaled interest in bringing more work to the facility, which could drive more hiring needs.

Ben Clark, AIM’s VP of outreach and development, tells Aviation Week Network that AAR has hired hundreds of students from the school’s U.S. campuses in recent years, noting that AAR donated scholarship funds and sponsored a classroom at AIM’s Indianapolis classroom in December 2024.

According to Tom Hoferer, SVP of repair and engineering at AAR, the Indianapolis partnership has been successful already. Four graduates have been hired at AAR, and five currently participate in AAR’s EAGLE Career Pathway Program. He says more than 70 graduates of AIM’s Indianapolis campus have gone on to work at AAR’s facility there since the company began its partnership with the school 20 years ago.

Hoferer says that, beyond AAR’s scholarship programs, “One thing we have learned from our experience most recently is we need to help employees that come through AIM with their [airframe and powerplant] testing also.” AAR has funded a test preparation program for AIM graduates coming to work at its Indianapolis facility, which it plans to expand to Rockford.

In preparation for the opening of its Miami expansion at the end of 2026, which Hoferer says will generate the need for 150-200 more employees, AAR is also working with Miami Dade College to develop a seven-month airframe certification training program. He says AAR is excited about embedding some of its MRO technology, such as virtual reality and paperless software, into the curriculum. Hoferer adds that these technologies have helped AAR meet younger technicians’ workplace expectations while getting them up to speed faster.

In March, AAR and its software subsidiary Trax partnered with the soFLY Southern Tropics chapter of Women in Aviation International to host a Girls in Aviation Tech Day, where the companies introduced more than 250 high school and college students to aviation maintenance technologies and career paths. Hoferer says AAR has prioritized showing younger students “the cool whiz bang technology,” such as virtual reality and drones, to generate excitement and “expand that aperture of what they understand and see as possible in aviation.”

Elsewhere in AAR’s network, the company has seen success with other workforce initiatives, such as its Vet To Hire and SkillBridge programs for transitioning military talent, its Flow Through Program with Alaska Airlines, and its high school internship program in Oklahoma City. Hoferer says AAR would like to expand the high school internship program to other sites due to its success there.

AAR also hopes to leverage another workforce strategy initiated at its Oklahoma City site to improve employee satisfaction at other locations. A couple years ago, it moved to a “total facility crew approach” in Oklahoma City that divides work into four 10-hr. days with a small crew on weekends to allow technicians more weekends off, which Hoferer says has had an “overwhelmingly positive” response.

“They love the flexibility it gives them. We’re actually trying to take it to phase two, meaning other alternate shift options,” such as four 10-hr. days or working every third weekend, says Hoferer. “We’ve actually found that some people prefer to work the weekend, so there’s a weekend crew and that’s all they work, which creates opportunities for fewer people to have to work weekends. It’s been a huge success and the team has made it part of the recruiting [strategy].”