Press Release
Issued by Aviation Institute of Maintenance.
July 21, 2021
The Aviation Institute of Maintenance (AIM), a coast-to-coast network of US aviation maintenance schools is progressing with its development of a campus in Chicago's McKinley Park neighbourhood. The build out of the new warehouse facility at 3711 S. Ashland Avenue is nearing completion. The new facility will be AIM's 14th and its largest aviation maintenance campus to date. The building features 32-foot clear height, 28 exterior loading docks, two drive-in doors, 100 percent premium Ductilcrete concrete paving and 138 car parking spaces. AIM has also purchased 14 aircraft for the campus, including a Learjet that arrived at the facility in late June.
The location is just six miles from Chicago Midway International Airport, 20 miles from Chicago O'Hare International Airport and within close proximity to Interstate-55, I-90/94, and the CTA Green Line. Michael Conway and Gavin Stainthorpe of JLL's urban industrial team led the site selection for AIM's newest campus. Once complete, the school will have the capacity to accommodate 1,000 students. Graduates focusing on the field of aviation maintenance in the Chicago metropolitan area will have the potential to earn an annual mean wage of $72,000 per year, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics in May of 2020.
“We're thrilled to welcome AIM to Chicago,” said Conway. “From its urban location in the McKinley Park neighbourhood, the institute has an excellent demographic pool for both prospective students and staff, large traffic counts and immediate access to Chicago's airports.”
AIM's current 109,000 square feet flagship campus is in Norfolk, Virginia, with two large aircraft hangars, dozens of laboratories and classrooms, an expansive veterans centre and a basketball gymnasium. The second largest is in Atlanta at 104,000 square feet. AIM enrolls 4,200 of the roughly 20,500 students attending A&P schools around the country (21%), and roughly 23% of all new A&P certified graduates come from AIM campuses annually.
Says executive vice president, Dr. Joel English, “There is no school offering an FAA-certified aviation maintenance programme in the Chicago area. The closest options are in Rockford, two hours northwest, and in Joliet, an hour southwest. None of these schools meet Chicago citizens where they are, and AIM is here to change that. One of the ways we've had such a deep impact is that we develop deep relationships with the communities in which we reside; in fact, we start those relationships well before we come to town.”
AIM received an Illinois Economic Development for a Growing Economy (EDGE) tax credit to expand into Chicago and has already hired three Chicago-based employees. It anticipates hiring approximately 40 people from the Chicago area by the end of 2021, and 75 by the end of 2022.
