FedEx moving maintenance operations to Indianapolis, ending work in Los Angeles
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — FedEx announced Monday it will close its Los Angeles maintenance facility and move that operation to Indianapolis, according to a statement from the company.
The company confirmed this move to News 8 in a statement saying in part that “the leased facility at Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) that FedEx Express currently utilizes as an aircraft maintenance facility is expected to expire in June 2024. Upon expiration of this lease agreement, FedEx plans to discontinue use of that facility and will move the heavy maintenance capability to our Indianapolis hub.”
There is no exact number of additional jobs coming to Indianapolis, but Kevin Brinegar, the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, says this is will be a positive boost for the workforce.
“These aircraft maintenance jobs are high-paying jobs. They are jobs that you don’t need a full-blown college bachelor’s degree for, but you do need a considerable amount of specialized training, so these will be nice opportunities for nontraditional college-bound students,” Brinegar said.
Brinegar also says that Indiana attracts businesses.
Indiana has been the home of many opportunities recently, according to Brinegar, including the LEAP Project in Boone County, an Entek lithium battery separator facility coming to Terre Haute, and the double tracking of the South Shore Railroad.
“We work very hard to create one of what is truly the best business climates in the Midwest and one of the very best in the United States. We improved our business tax climate, our regulatory climate, and our overall business climate,” Brinegar said.
Eric Kulisch, a supply chain and air cargo editor at Freightwaves, says the planes that were maintained and inspected at that facility are being phased out.
“Part of that is due to a lot of the planes being maintained there are older McDonnell Douglas -10 and -11, and those mostly have been retired or are in the process of being retired. There is somewhat less overall work to be done there,” Kulisch said.
Kulisch says FedEx is offering to keep the affected mechanics employed with the company.
“I’m being told the mechanics are being offered jobs in Indianapolis or possibly elsewhere in the system,” Kulisch said. “So, they are trying to relocate them assuming people want to do that.”
This facility closure is set to improve efficiency for FedEx and allow maintenance to happen in the same state as the second-largest FedEx hub in the country.