{"id":29273,"date":"2026-06-02T09:38:56","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T09:38:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/29273\/"},"modified":"2026-06-02T09:38:56","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T09:38:56","slug":"airbus-contract-is-latest-in-jlls-expansion-into-aviation-sector-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/29273\/","title":{"rendered":"Airbus contract is latest in JLL\u2019s expansion into aviation sector"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This story was originally published on Facilities Dive<\/a>. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Facilities Dive newsletter<\/a>. <\/p>\n

An initiative JLL launched eight years ago to specialize in aerospace facilities management reached a milestone in early May when the company completed onboarding as the facilities manager for Airbus\u2019 30-building assembly plant in Mobile, Alabama.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re here because there\u2019s a need in the market,\u201d Michael Colligan, work dynamics principal with JLL\u2019s solutions development team, told Facilities Dive in an interview.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The company last year signed a turnkey facilities management contract with WestJet<\/a>, Canada\u2019s second-largest airline, and will be providing facilities management services at John F. Kennedy<\/a> International Airport\u2019s New Terminal One, which is slated to open this year, among other work it\u2019s doing in the aviation management space.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But the size and scope of the Airbus assignment makes it a crucial addition to this specialized portfolio, according to Koley MacKay, JLL\u2019s aviation group leader and managing director.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re really trying to do with our industry segmentation is build a skillset of aviation experts that know how to [work] in a very complex environment,\u201d MacKay said in an interview. \u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019ve been working on over the last eight years.\u201d<\/p>\n

The basic facilities management issues are the same in the aerospace environment as they are in other real estate sectors, but the way those services must be provided in the context of a complex production environment like an airplane assembly operation requires a different approach, MacKay said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have technicians that are trained to operate and maintain [the large] overhead doors\u201d in hangars, MacKay said as an example. \u201cIf you have a production element where they\u2019re ready to \u2026 move a component of an airplane and they can\u2019t get one out of the hangar because the door\u2019s not working, it\u2019s incredibly impactful. So we \u2026 make sure we\u2019re not impacting the client\u2019s production in any way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Airbus launched its Mobile Aeroplex at Brookley about 10 years ago to provide final assembly of the company\u2019s A320 planes and later expanded the facility to assemble A220 planes.<\/p>\n

To manage the campus, JLL has some 30 technicians working alongside Airbus production staff.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have multi-skilled building engineers, electricians, certified HVAC technicians, some door specialists and, just given the scale of the campus, generalists [for] painting and appearance-care-type work,\u201d said Colligan.<\/p>\n

The way the technicians work is intended to mirror how the production team works, Colligan said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe facilities team \u2026 is practically an embedded extension of the client,\u201d he said, \u201cmirroring \u2026\u00a0 their shifts and using their work methods and quality systems\u2026. There\u2019s a different level of quality and procedures and playbooks that have to be followed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The technicians have a fleet of vehicles for getting around the campus. \u201cWe treat the operation as one integrated portfolio,\u201d said MacKay.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To manage coordination, JLL works with an executive in Mobile who is part of Airbus\u2019 corporate real estate team. \u201cThat person is the bridge [between us and] the Airbus production stakeholders on the manufacturing side,\u201d MacKay said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Onboarding began in early March and was completed at the beginning of May, when JLL officially began working as the facilities manager.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of coordination and trainings on safety protocols, equipment-use protocols, things of that nature,\u201d MacKay said.<\/p>\n

To staff up, the company made positions available internally and also tapped new hires. \u201cWe go through a rigorous effort to evaluate any incumbent employees we consider for roles and then we\u2019ll go into the local market,\u201d MacKay said. \u201cWe have several trades programs that we\u2019re focused on for bringing technical skillsets into JLL for our aviation businesses, whether it\u2019s through our connection with the SkillBridge program [or] an internal channel program that looks at skilled trade internships.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to the assembly plant, JLL is managing Airbus\u2019 U.S. corporate headquarters in Herndon, Virginia. The company had the contract renewed at the same time it was awarded the assembly plant contract.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHow work gets done within manufacturing environments and corporate environments are obviously different, but thematically, bringing them together made sense for us and the client,\u201d said Colligan.<\/p>\n

Recommended Reading <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story was originally published on Facilities Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13021],"tags":[4616,5912,21087,21274,21275,8196],"class_list":["post-29273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-airbus","tag-airbus","tag-alabama","tag-assembly-plant","tag-facilities-management","tag-michael-colligan","tag-mobile"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}