Gulfstream lit up Georgia’s recession-weary coast in late 2010 when the business jet giant said it would expand its campus in Savannah and create 1,000 new jobs over seven years.
As it turns out, the aerospace company says it has more than doubled the number of new jobs it promised in less than half the time, riding a hot market for large, top-of-the-line business jets.
Gulfstream has created 2,200 jobs as part of its ongoing $500 million expansion, spokesman Steve Cass said. The boisterous growth comes as the horizon brightens for business aviation, due to demand not only in the U.S., but in economic powers like China, Russia and Brazil.
Closer to home, Gulfstream’s expansion has been an economic shot in the arm for Georgia’s coast.
“Gulfstream’s impact in Georgia has exceeded all expectations in terms of jobs and investment,” said Chris Carr, commissioner of the state Department of Economic Development. He added the benefits ripple beyond Savannah by generating business and jobs for the company’s “vast supplier network in Georgia.”
Gulfstream’s sleek private jets are bought by mostly by major corporations, but also governments and celebrities of various stripes. The company has a nearly $14 billion backlog of new plane orders, with the waiting list for its newest model, the eight-passenger G650, that stretches to 2017.
“It’s going to take time to work through all that,” said Cass, who called the backlog “healthy, but not unusually high.” The company’s backlog was $7.7 billion near the peak of the economy in 2006.
Global business aviation is expected to grow 4 percent to 5 percent each year for the next decade, according to a recent report from Honeywell, led by the largest business jets.
The growth spurt means more than 9,000 of the company’s 14,000 employees are in Georgia, mainly in Savannah and Brunswick. Of those, 1,700 are engineers, Cass said. There are no plans announced for further job growth, and Cass said Gulfstream has enough manufacturing capacity to meet its orders.
“We’re very, very happy and comfortable with where we are now,” he said.
Demand for corporate and commercial jets — and therefore manufacturing employment — can yo-yo with economic trends. The industry wasn’t immune to the recession, but larger corporate jets, like the bread and butter of Gulfstream, were more resilient than smaller planes, said Jens C. Hennig, vice president of operations for the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, an industry trade group.
The value of general aircraft sales, which includes business jets but not commercial airplanes, increased by nearly a quarter to $15.4 billion in the first nine months of 2013, Hennig said.
“Until recently there has been too much uncertainty out there,” Hennig said of improving trends.
The aerospace industry is responsible for about 2.4 percent of Georgia’s GDP, and it is a $10 billion a year business for the state, according to a 2010 report by consulting and auditing firm Deloitte.
Georgia boasts about 500 aerospace-related companies, including a Lockheed Martin manufacturing center in Marietta. Georgia is also home to the world’s busiest airport in Hartsfield-Jackson International and military aviation outposts like Robins Air Force Base and Dobbins Air Reserve Base.
Aerospace is coveted because the industry creates generally high-paying jobs requiring skilled workers from engineers to welders.
The median annual pay in Georgia for aerospace product and parts manufacturing jobs was $65,800 in 2012, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Gulfstream’s performance was a bright spot for parent General Dynamics, which also builds warships and combat vehicles and equipment.
The business jet builder delivered 38 completed jets in the third quarter, more than double the total from the same period a year ago. For the first nine months of this year, the jet maker delivered 103 completed planes, up from 57 in the first three quarters of 2012. Revenue grew 18 percent in that time to nearly $6 billion.
The G650, Gulfstream’s biggest and longest-range jet so far, travels nearly nine-tenths the speed of sound and is capable of flying nonstop from Shanghai to New York, Cass said.
Multinational corporations are a major segment of growth in business aviation, with companies demanding speed and efficiency, said GAMA’s Hennig. Companies held on to their planes longer during the recession.
Gulfstream came to Savannah in 1967 with 100 employees. It’s since grown in a sprawling campus that surrounds the Savannah airport. The company does all of its research and development in Georgia, though it also has operations in several states, including Texas and California, and customer service centers around the globe.
The Southeast is becoming a global aerospace hub, thanks in part to lower labor costs, cheaper land and in some cases, financial inducements. Other manufacturers with major facilities in the South include Boeing in South Carolina, Embraer in Florida and Airbus in Alabama.
Gulfstream was offered about $29.7 million in statutory incentives, including state tax credits and jobs training, related to the expansion it launched three years ago. The company also expanded in Georgia in 2006, exceeding its job goals then by 400.
Gulfstream is Savannah’s No. 1 corporate employer in a region that also includes the state’s fast-growing port, a healthy tourism industry and the military.
Georgia is in position to attract additional facilities from suppliers not only to Gulfstream but also to Boeing and Embraer, said Trip Tollison, president and CEO of the Savannah Economic Development Authority.
He said Gulfstream’s impact to the coast rivals the Kia Motors plant in west Georgia.
“I do envision greater things to come from Gulfstream,” Tollison said.
About the Author
