SCTCC Celebrates New Aircraft Maintenance Technician Program

ST. CLOUD (WJON News) -- The St. Cloud Technical and Community College is set to add an Aircraft Maintenance Technician program to its curriculum.

Members of the Minnesota State System, the airline industry, and others all gathered at the St. Cloud Regional Airport Wednesday to celebrate the new program.

WJON News first told you about this new program back in June.

Metropolitan Airports Commission Executive Director and CEO Brian Ryks says Delta Airlines executives have told him they lost the equivalent of 570,000 years of experience from their tech operators who quit during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Delta, Sun Country, and other aircraft operators are unable to serve their customers without a reliable pipeline of talent to fill the demands of this industry, and that we desperately need an enhanced aircraft maintenance technician pipeline in Minnesota.

SCTCC says between now and 2030 Minnesota has projected job openings of over 1,700 people in the field.

Ryks says the students who graduate from the program will benefit the airline industry across the state.

Regardless of whether these jobs are based in the Twin Cities at Delta and Sun Country's MRO facilities, elsewhere across the state like Cirrus in Duluth, throughout the network of fixed-base operators at large and small airports, or right here at St. Cloud Aviation or the Army Aviation Support facility across the field.

SCTCC says the starting pay for an Aircraft Maintenance Technician is $32 an hour, with an average salary of about $100,000 within five years.

The first Aircraft Maintenance Technician cohort at SCTCC will start in the fall of 2026 and will graduate in the spring of 2028. They will be the fourth higher education program in Minnesota to offer the program.

Photo by WJON.coms Jim Maurice

Between now and then a new hangar will be built at the airport which will host the program. They also still need to secure certification from the FAA.