Demand is growing for aviation maintenance technicians — people who inspect, repair and maintain aircraft and their components — in Virginia and across the country. Danville Community College is working to add an aviation maintenance technology program to fill this need.
Danville already has a general aviation airport and an aviation and aeronautics workforce pipeline through programs at Averett University.
Adding an aviation maintenance technology program will help the region’s workforce, and the airport, grow, said Marc Adelman, director of transportation for the city.
“Having a pipeline, an established workforce available, that’s critical to most industries, especially in a specialized field like aviation,” Adelman said.
DCC hopes to begin offering courses in the fall, teaching students flight theory, inspection techniques, troubleshooting, hands-on repair procedures and aircraft systems like electronics, engine structures and flight controls.
The program will include both classroom instruction and laboratory and shop-based experience.
Until then, DCC staff is creating curriculum, obtaining required certifications from the Federal Aviation Administration and working closely with Blue Ridge Community College, the only other public college in Virginia to offer this program.
And the Danville airport is building new hangar space to make room on its campus for both Averett and DCC.
“Our region has aircraft, pilots, and aviation activity, but not enough certified technicians to support them locally,” said Cornelius Johnson, president of DCC, in an email statement.
“Community colleges exist to respond to real workforce needs, and aviation maintenance is a clear example of that mission in action.”
‘Can’t grow fast enough to meet the demand’
Demand for aviation maintenance technicians is outpacing supply, according to a 2025 report from the Aeronautical Repair Station Association, the primary trade association for aviation maintenance.
The report projected a 10% gap between supply and demand of certified mechanics for commercial aviation needs alone in 2025.
That shortfall is expected to decrease to 6% by 2035, “but not surpass demand, representing a gap of 4,200 certificated mechanics,” the report says. This does not account for business and general aviation, “which will place additional pressure on the technical workforce.”
Adding to the demand, there’s a backlog of new aircraft and a projected 13% increase in air transport fleet over the next 10 years. Air travel has grown beyond pre-pandemic levels, the report says.
“We are about to see a maintenance, repair and overhaul ‘super cycle’ in response to an aging fleet requiring more maintenance and increased aircraft utilization,” it says.
Other community colleges in both Virginia and North Carolina have seen this growing demand firsthand.
Blue Ridge Community College in Weyers Cave, the only other public college in Virginia to offer an aviation maintenance program, has had its program for 17 years. Guilford Technical Community College near Greensboro, North Carolina, just under an hour from Danville, has had one for 50 years.
“The number of employers is growing, certainly for mechanics for airplanes in the state, but there’s also a growing aerospace industry and a growing airplane industry,” said John Downey, president of BRCC.
“But not only that, manufacturers hire aviation mechanics, and even amusement parks hire aviation mechanics, so our graduates work in a wide variety of industries in Virginia because they’re just so talented in terms of being able to take things apart and put them back together.”
This contributes to the shortage of workers in this field, said Nick Yale, director of aviation programs at GTCC.
“There’s all kinds of stuff you have to learn that’s applicable across the board,” Yale said. “Unfortunately, that’s part of the reason why there’s such a demand in the industry to help maintain airplanes. Some of them are leaving the industry.”
Still, it’s important for a locality that’s working to attract industry to develop this workforce, Yale said.
“Nobody can expand and grow without a talent pipeline,” he said. “Picture any company, let’s say a manufacturer wants to move into Danville. Let’s say they’re planning on hiring 800 to 1,000 employees. … They wouldn’t consider Danville if they didn’t have a pipeline, because it’s going to be too hard for them to maintain their business.”
In the last five years, BRCC’s aviation maintenance program has had 10 to 15 graduates, Downey said. Most of the time, each graduate is hired by a different company.
“The competition to hire these individuals is so strong that many employers are hiring one at a time,” Downey said. “If they could hire more, they would, but there aren’t enough being produced.”
Eighty-three students are enrolled in BRCC’s aviation maintenance technology program, Downey said; most are part-time students who also work while attending school.
GTCC’s program has about 190 students, Yale said, and enrollment is expected to increase.
“I can’t grow fast enough to meet the demand,” he said.
Southside Virginia has thousands of active pilots and a significant number of aircraft but a shortage of certified maintenance personnel, according to data gathered by DCC, said Melissa Mann, dean of career and technical education, and Marcio Couto, instructor of the aviation maintenance technology program, in a joint email statement to Cardinal News.
“As a result, aircraft owners and operators often must seek maintenance services in neighboring states, creating both delays and added costs,” they wrote. “The [DCC] program is intended to help meet this local workforce demand.”
Building a partnership
Schools must obtain federal approval to offer an aviation maintenance technology program.
The program must comply with FAA regulations, as well as institutional and accreditation requirements. Developing a program involves the creation of a curriculum that adheres to FAA standards, facility and equipment preparation, faculty qualification and multiple layers of regulatory review and approval, Mann and Couto said.
DCC hopes to begin offering aviation maintenance courses in the fall. That timeline includes three months of coordination with the FAA and an additional month for final certification, Mann and Couto said.
Right now, about 50% of the course syllabi are written and ready for FAA review. Laboratory and shop spaces are being prepared and equipment planning has begun, they said.
The program is waiting for final accreditation documentation from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. After that, DCC can proceed with the next regulatory steps.
BRCC is collaborating with DCC to get this program up and running in Danville, Downey said.
The FAA certification isn’t the only barrier to creating an aviation maintenance program. There’s also a huge operating cost because of the amount of space and equipment needed.
Downey didn’t have an exact figure for the operating cost of the aviation maintenance program at BRCC, but “it’s easily over a million dollars” to set up all the equipment and hire the faculty, he said.
The high operating cost of these programs is another reason that it’s beneficial for the two community colleges to work together, Downey said.
“On an ongoing basis, I think the partnership is more about regional cooperation. We’re getting demands statewide from economic developers who are working with prospective or expanding companies that need technicians,” Downey said. “Rather than re-creating more publicly funded sites across the state, we are trying to work on providing distance learning opportunities for aviation maintenance technology.”
BRCC already has FAA approval to offer courses across the state, but those programs still require an in-person lab component, he said.
“We’re trying to work together to figure out how we can create remote labs that would then benefit the rest of the state so they’re not replicating the whole program, but we’re offering some instruction distance learning,” Downey said.
This will also make the program more financially accessible for students, he said.
Students at BRCC pay about $5,000 per year to attend the school, and there is no additional cost to enroll in the aviation maintenance program, Downey said.
At DCC, tuition for a full-time student is about $2,570, not including living expenses.
At Liberty University, a private institution with an aviation maintenance curriculum, annual tuition is $25,000, not including room and board costs.
“Our programs are going to be far more accessible for a wider range of students than programs that are privately funded,” Downey said. “For our students, especially students who otherwise might not be able to go to aviation maintenance school, it gives them access to a high-pay career that is in such high demand.”
Wages vary depending on the region, Yale said. More populous regions with larger airports usually have higher wages.
In the Greensboro area, starting wages during training are around $26 an hour, Yale said.
“If someone decided to go to work for Delta Airlines in Atlanta or American Airlines down in Charlotte, then that same starting wage is going to be higher,” he said.
At most airlines, it takes seven to 10 years to top out as far as pay rate. At that point, salaries are usually in the high-$50,000 range, Yale said.
Schools starting an aviation maintenance program should pay attention to local and regional demand, and then meet that demand without overgrowing it, he said.
“Yes, people can get work in other locations, but as a community college, your job is to fill the local jobs in the local area,” he said. “You don’t want to train people to leave and support other communities.”
New hangar, training facility under construction
Averett University has had a presence at the Danville Regional Airport for decades through its flight school and aerospace management curriculums, but this will be the first time that DCC has students there as well, Adelman said.
To make room for both schools on the airport’s campus, an additional hangar and training facility is being built, and an existing hangar is being renovated.
It’s about a $9 million project that has been largely funded by federal and state money, Adelman said. The local contribution for the work represents about 5% of the total cost.
Averett’s program will move into the new 6,400-square-foot hangar, DCC will take over the hangar that Averett was using and students from both schools will share the training space.
“They will be sharing classroom space, they will be sharing student lounge space, so it is really a shared-use facility in its truest sense,” Adelman said.
DCC and Averett share a common goal of expanding aviation opportunities in the region through academic pathways, Mann and Couto said, and the two schools have discussed potential transfer opportunities.
The 3,900-square-foot hangar that DCC will move into is about 20 years old. It will be renovated with improved lighting, an industrial ceiling fan and an air compressor for the aviation maintenance program’s needs.
The space already has an office, a shower, a bathroom and an oil-water separator in the floor, so students can change aircraft oil.
Conversations about these projects began around five years ago, Adelman said.
“Danville’s airport layout plan had to be modified to show that an aviation training facility building would be constructed,” he said. “That requires FAA approval. You can’t build anything on an airport without it being included or represented in the airport layout plan. … This has not been something that we flip the switch and it comes together.”
Along with staff from DCC and the airport, Adelman toured the Blue Ridge and Guilford Technical programs. He said he was surprised by the need for so much space.
“The hangar that [BRCC] used for their training was completely filled with shop equipment,” he said.
The program also requires several aircraft so that students can get hands-on maintenance experience.
BRCC and GTCC work closely with nearby airports, the Shenandoah Valley Airport and the Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro, respectively.
“That link between the airport and us as a college has been going on for many years,” Yale said. “[The Greensboro airport] uses us, as they should, whenever a new manufacturer or airline client comes to town.”
GTCC gives these clients tours of the program to share information about the workforce pipeline and how it’s growing to match industry growth, he said.
The Shenandoah Valley Airport provides BRCC with space for the lab component of the program, storing aircraft, helicopters and other equipment, Downey said.
Adelman said he foresees the relationship between the coming program and the Danville airport to be just as beneficial.
“I hope that the combination of having the aviation maintenance program here and the flight school, and the ability of both to grow, will help diversify growth at the airport in the future,” he said. “It’s a major building block.”
