Plane Place Aviation: New Jet Maintenance Shop comes to Cleburne

Plane Place Aviation: New Jet Maintenance Shop comes to Cleburne Regional Airport

Story and Photos by
Garrett Watson, Airport Associate

In April of this year (2022), Plane Place Aviation opened their doors in hangar 1010 at Cleburne Regional Airport operating on varying sizes of turbine jet engines. Co-owners and A&P Mechanics Travis Roberson and Tristan Noe said they look forward to the opportunity to have a location close to the DFW area without all the traffic and sky-high costs that will help them and the clients they serve.

The new maintenance shop comes amidst a surge of increased traffic and activity at the airport with Dauntless Air choosing Cleburne Airport as a Texas base of operations at the beginning of the year and record air traffic operations for the field in March. Overall, aviation has experienced an optimistic pattern of growth over the last few months, with private jet sales as well as general aviation aircraft in some areas at an all-time high. With more aircraft in operation, Plane Place Aviation owner Tristan Noe says business is already taking off.

“We’re already seeing quite a bit of customers coming to us for maintenance and repairs and still need more help,” said Noe. “We have two certified A&P (airframe and powerplant) mechanics and we’ve brought in nine full-time contractors as of right now. At this rate, we are estimating that by 2025 we’ll have 30 full-time employees.”

In addition to creating jobs for the area, Noe explained they will also be looking to provide internship opportunities to college students and others looking to gain needed experience for their own A&P certifications, meaning they’ll be contributing to expanding skilled labor professionals in an industry struggling to keep up.

“We’ve got two interns working for us that are in school right now,” said Noe, “and by the end of this year, we’re hoping to have at least half of our contractors come to work for us full-time.”

With lower costs of operation outside of the DFW metroplex, Cleburne is positioned to capture a growing number of businesses and industries looking to escape the rising costs of the big city; that doesn’t just mean Dallas either.

“We feel like a lot of our customers are not just from DFW but also coming from out of state and this is a great location to support that,” said Noe. “We can also keep our costs lower here because of the affordability of this location. Looking at the Dallas area, prices were outrageous looking at getting on fields up there.”

In an industry where prices for parts are anything but cheap, keeping what costs they can low means the company is that much more attractive to their clients.

“We’ve cut down a lot of our overhead and are able to pass those savings along to our customers,” said co-owner Travis Roberson.

Roberson added that another focus of the company is to do what they know really well while continuing to learn and expand their expertise.

“We’re trying to minimalize what products we’re working on to help boost our quality of service,” Roberson said. “With that, we’ll continue to do quality work and take care of our customers, especially those who have been with us for a long time.

In the aviation industry, there are a lot of friends in high places and word travels fast Noe explained. That’s why he expressed their commitment to showing up every day and giving their best to help every customer that comes to them.

“Aviation is a small world and it’s easy to make a wave in this industry,” said Noe. “So with a few happy customers, that word of mouth gets out and will help us to continue to grow.”

For more information about Plane Place Aviation give them a call at 817-739-5630 or email [email protected]