Only two years into its existence, Cleburne, Texas-based Plane Place Aviation already has carved out a prominent place for itself among more established MRO providers in the Southwest. Having recently added AOG and mobile repair team (MRT) services to its capabilities for Texas and Oklahoma, the company also expanded onsite support at Dallas Love Field while co-owners Tristan Noe and Travis Roberson look for further growth opportunities.
The added services augment Plane Place’s maintenance of Bombardier Challenger 300, Hawker, and Cessna Citation airframes, on which the company claims extensive experience supporting large MROs, charter operations, and aircraft management companies.
While speaking with AIN, Noe noted the high volumes of business aviation activity at Dallas Love Field in particular. “We’ve got a lot of customers up there and sometimes it just doesn’t make sense for them to fly their airplane down to Cleburne to get minor maintenance done,” he explained. “So, we’re trying to provide some support for them up there.”
Tapping into an abundance of AOG work in and around Texas, Plane Place took advantage of the dearth of support in Austin and the location of its headquarters just southwest of Dallas Fort Worth International Airport.
Employing 26 mechanics in late February, Plane Place has never stopped hiring since its establishment in 2022. As seems to be the case with most MRO providers, the company has had trouble attracting good-quality, experienced candidates, noted Roberson.
“It’s rough,” he said without a hint of hesitancy. “This year we’ve tasked ourselves with hiring quality senior technicians. We’re emphasizing quality over quantity. And nothing against the guys; they get a job somewhere and either don’t want to leave or they don’t have to leave because they’re being taken care of.”
The company needs to hire between five and 10 more mechanics to perform heavy structural inspections, said Noe. “We specialize in taking the airplane apart, inspecting every inch of it, and putting it back together,” he explained.
Plane Place’s facilities include about 20,000 sq ft of hangar space, not enough to keep up with the increased level of demand Noe sees. “We’re working on expanding, whether that means leasing more hangar space or building more hangar space,” he remarked. “We’re hoping over the next 12 months we’ll have another solution for an extra 20,000 square feet.”
Plane Place has waited for a year since applying for a Part 145 certificate and now sees the likelihood of it taking another year thanks to bureaucratic delays at the FAA. “We’ve been very fortunate,” said Roberson. “We’ve been able to keep the hangars full and keep everything moving. But there’s still that, ‘well, we could have had this one if we had [the Part 145 certificate.]’ That’s the hard part.”
Along with a shortage of qualified mechanics, other constraints include low parts availability due to persistent supply chain kinks. While some shops say they have seen an improvement, Plane Place’s Noe didn’t mince words about the cost and increased turnaround times. “I definitely think that it’s still a huge problem,” he said, adding that the Hawkers have suffered most from lack of parts availability. “The Hawker is having a hard time with parts. We’ve been able to help out with that; we’ve got a couple of additional options for serviceable parts. We have a company here on the field that we work with that parts out Hawkers.”
While the parts problem has contributed to longer turnaround times, Noe noted that the mechanic shortage has played a part as well. Work volumes have skyrocketed, prompting maintenance shops to ask mechanics to work overtime and on weekends. “The sheer volume that everybody’s going through is tremendous,” commented Noe.
Meanwhile, costs overall have increased precipitously, often faster than the rate of inflation. Hangar rent at Love Field, for example, has increased by 40 percent this year, he added.
“Everything about the MRO aspect has gone up,” he reported. “The parts are getting more expensive, the cost of living for the mechanics is more expensive, so the mechanics have to make more money, so then the shop rates have to go up, even down to the consumables that we use on the airframe—the greases, the lubricants, the acid brushes, the paint brushes, all that’s gone up.”