Aerospace firm AAR Aircraft Component Services to cut 83 jobs, leave Garden City

A Garden City business that repairs components of military and commercial airplanes will lay off 83 employees and move much of its operation to Kansas and Texas, according to state records obtained by Newsday.

AAR Aircraft Component Services will terminate more than 70% of its employees between this month and April. The remaining 35 employees will move to a new office somewhere on Long Island, states a report from the state Department of Labor.

The job cuts are taking place eight months after company executives sought tax breaks and other assistance from Suffolk County and New York State to move from a plant on Zeckendorf Boulevard in Garden City to a smaller building in Melville.

In December, Lawrence Montreuil, an AAR Aircraft site leader, told the county’s Industrial Development Agency that the company’s parent, AAR Corp. in Wood Dale, Illinois, was looking to consolidate the Long Island operation with one in Miami.

"Our corporate officers in Chicago are very interested to see that we lower our fixed costs so that we can be more profitable," he told the IDA board, referring to rent, taxes and utility bills. "So, we’re trying to find every possible means to lower our fixed costs . . . to enable us to remain on Long Island and take advantage of the great skilled labor that we have here."

A spokeswoman for AAR did not respond to requests for comment this week.

However, the Labor Department report states that after AAR’s $725 million purchase of Triumph Group’s Product Support business in December it was "decided to move manufacturing and repair operations out of Garden City to existing plants in Kansas and Texas." Triumph has facilities in Wellington, Kansas, and Grand Prairie and San Antonio, Texas.

AAR reported a profit of $46.3 million for the year ended May 31 compared with $90.2 million a year earlier. Sales for the year were up about 16% to $2.3 billion.

AAR has 65 facilities around the world and about 6,000 employees, based on securities filings.

At AAR Aircraft, the workforce totaled about 140 people last year and they earned, on average, $80,100 per year, according to the application for IDA aid.

The agency offered AAR Aircraft $977,505 in tax savings over 15 years, but the deal never closed, IDA records show.

The company recently won a $113.1 million contract from the U.S. Army to fix 1,260 auxiliary power units for Black Hawk helicopters. The contract runs through 2028 and would have added up to eight people to the company’s Garden City workforce over the next two years.

Besides Black Hawk helicopters, AAR Aircraft repairs parts for F-16 fighter jets and CH-47 helicopters. It also works on parts for the cargo and passenger airplanes used by FedEx, United Parcel Service, Alaska Airlines and Southwest Airlines.

Employees losing their jobs will receive severance of two weeks pay plus one week for every year of service, the Labor Department report shows.

In addition, AAR Aircraft has made arrangements for the manufacturers’ trade group Ignite LI to hold three on-site job fairs for the affected employees. The first was held last month with 10 employers, and the others are scheduled for next month and in March, said Jamie Moore, Ignite LI president.

The skills that the AAR Aircraft workers possess "match up perfectly with the manufacturing needs on the Island," he said on Wednesday. "I don’t think there is anybody that we cannot get a job for."

Employers wanting to participate in the job fairs or having Ignite LI match AAR Aircraft employees with job openings should send an email to jamie.moore@igniteli.org. 

By James T. Madore

james.madore@newsday.comJamesTMadore

James T. Madore writes about Long Island business news including the economy, development, and the relationship between government and business. He previously served as Albany bureau chief.