SFBJ report shows South Florida’s MRO industry strengthening the region’s position

Fort Lauderdale, Florida – South Florida has long been known for its airports, cruise ports, and status as a gateway to Latin America and the Caribbean. But behind the passenger terminals and cargo routes, another industry has been quietly expanding and reshaping the region’s economic identity. Maintenance, repair, and overhaul, better known as MRO, has become one of the most important aviation service sectors in the Western Hemisphere, and South Florida now sits at the center of it.

The tri-county area, covering Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties, hosts one of the largest clusters of aviation maintenance companies in the United States. According to the Greater Fort Lauderdale Alliance, Broward County’s economic development organization, the region is home to hundreds of federally certified MRO stations. Together, these operations represent more than half of Florida’s estimated $4.9 billion MRO industry.

The scale of that presence is still surprising to many outside the field.

“Unless you’ve got a relative in the aviation industry, you probably aren’t aware of how important it is, and how much of it is here,” Alliance President and CEO Bob Swindell said. “People say, ‘We always knew there’s some activity, but we didn’t realize the scale of it.’”

The industry is not just large in size but also in economic impact. Official figures show it supports around 120,000 jobs across the region, many of them offering wages above the local average. That workforce includes engineers, technicians, mechanics, and specialists who keep aircraft operating safely across global routes.

Demand for these services continues to rise. South Florida’s position as a hub connecting North and South America, along with Europe and beyond, has made it a natural center for aviation maintenance operations. Companies say the work is steady, technical, and deeply dependent on skilled labor.

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“There’s an astronomical amount of demand, specifically in South Florida,” said Cam Murphy, president of Miami Springs-based FEAM Aero. “There are huge opportunities in this [MRO] space, and it’s completely AI-proof.”

While geography plays a major role in the industry’s growth, experts say history is just as important. South Florida’s aviation sector was significantly shaped by the collapse of major airlines in the early 1990s, especially Eastern Airlines and Pan Am. When both companies shut down in 1991, thousands of trained aviation workers suddenly found themselves without jobs.

Rather than leaving the region, many stayed and built something new.

“You had a really well-trained workforce, and they were forced to become entrepreneurs. They didn’t want to pull up their family and move somewhere else … so they went out and opened up their own small shops,” Swindell said. “That was the nucleus, and then it grew and grew.”

That pattern of small, specialized businesses continues to define the MRO landscape today. Instead of a few large, centralized corporations controlling the market, the region is made up of hundreds of smaller firms, each focused on a specific type of aviation service.

Pastor Lopez, president of the MRO Services Group at Fort Lauderdale-based GA Telesis, has seen that transformation unfold over decades.

“I remember one individual who knew how to rewind motors, and he opened a rewind shop,” he said. “Next thing you know, the people who worked for him opened their own rewind shops, and eventually there were four or five different rewind shops in the early 1990s.”

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This structure has created what industry leaders describe as a fragmented but highly efficient market. Each company tends to focus on a narrow technical area, making specialization a defining feature of South Florida’s MRO identity.

“It’s a very fragmented market, but the market started out that way,” FEAM Aero’s Murphy said. “It’s also because the industry is so regulated and capital-intensive. So once you become really good in a certain category, [it’s difficult] to jump to a different lane.”

FEAM Aero itself is a clear example of this model. The company, which is family-owned and now led by its second generation, specializes in line maintenance. That work involves routine inspections and checks performed on aircraft that are actively in service.

“Every time an aircraft lands at a gate or cargo terminal, we’ll go over and do all those checks, right there on the live aircraft,” Murphy said. “That’s our bread and butter.”

The company employs around 2,000 people across the United States and Europe, including more than 300 workers in South Florida alone. Despite its size, Murphy emphasizes that the business is fundamentally about people rather than machines.

“We’re not a parts company,” he said. “We’re labor-focused. We always say we do aircraft maintenance, but really, we’re in the business of people.”

Other firms in the region operate in entirely different segments of the aviation maintenance chain. GA Telesis, for example, focuses on aircraft components rather than full aircraft servicing. With operations spanning South Florida, Europe, and Asia, the company handles parts such as landing gear assemblies and other critical systems.

“We do about 50,000 components in any given year,” Lopez said. “We touch every single system on the airplane, whether it’s passenger or cargo.”

The company employs more than 1,000 workers locally and operates across multiple international markets. Its presence reflects how South Florida companies are no longer limited to regional or national operations, but are instead deeply embedded in global aviation networks.

Another key player in the region is Coral Springs-based CTS Engines, a company specializing in engine maintenance and repair. The firm recently expanded significantly, nearly doubling its operational footprint with a new 216,000-square-foot facility. That growth underscores ongoing investment in the sector and signals continued confidence in South Florida’s role as an aviation services hub.

Taken together, these companies form a complex ecosystem that is increasingly difficult to overlook. From small specialty shops that began decades ago to multinational firms operating across continents, South Florida’s MRO industry has evolved into a major economic force.

What once grew out of airline collapses and entrepreneurial necessity has matured into a structured and highly skilled industry cluster. And while much of the work happens out of public view, experts say its importance is only increasing as global air travel continues to expand.

In many ways, South Florida’s aviation story is no longer just about where planes land. It is also about what happens after they do.