Greater OKC Region Aerospace Industry – 2025
Federal Anchor: Tinker AFB and FAA Center At the center of the region’s aerospace complex are two key federal complexes – Tinker AFB and the FAA’s Monroney Center. 3 Tinker AFB is the largest single-site employer in the region and provides jobs for nearly 27,000 federal civilian workers, civilian contract workers, active-duty military, and Reserve/Guard members. The activities at Tinker AFB include a large MRO operation for military aircraft and a range of high-skill aerospace-related service occupations, with large numbers of workers engaged in program management and logistics activities. Smaller groups of Department of Defense (DoD) employees with a focus on information technology are also housed at Tinker AFB. The base generated $3.6 billion in output and $2 billion in compensation for workers in 2025. Workers at Tinker AFB comprise almost 60% of the total regional aerospace workforce. The FAA’s Monroney Center is located on the grounds of Will Rogers World Airport in Oklahoma City and is home to the highest concentration of Department of Transportation workers outside the Washington D.C. area. The Center provides consulting, engineering, repair, distribution, and technical support for air traffic control services in the United States and abroad. Approximately 5,100 federal civilian employees and contractors work at the campus and comprise 11% of the OKC region aerospace labor force. 4 These jobs are largely high-skill and generated total compensation of $570 million in fiscal year 2024. Total employment at federal government-related aerospace entities rose by more than 900 workers (3%) since the 2020 aerospace report, from 31,311 in 2020 to 32,229 in 2025. The federal government sector now accounts for about 70% of total aerospace employment (down from 75% in the 2020 report) and more than half of the sector’s total output. The reported total of 33,568 aerospace-related workers across federal, state, and local government comprise 74 % of the region’s aerospace labor force. Most of the state and local government aerospace-related workers in the region are affiliated with the Oklahoma Air National Guard. The roughly 1,325 full- and part-time employees comprising the Air Guard received an estimated $75 million in compensation in fiscal year 2024. Private-Sector Strength in MRO Outside of the government presence, the largest private-sector contributor is MRO (Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul) services. This segment includes 47 firms employing 4,920 workers, generating more than $2.1 billion in output, and producing $656 million in labor income. MRO services are closely tied to the regional military infrastructure, yet they are also diversified across commercial and private markets. Key MRO hubs in the Greater OKC region are located at Tinker AFB, Will Rogers World Airport, Wiley Post Airport, and other smaller general aviation airports in the region. Since the 2020 report, the MRO sector has posted significant growth. Employment has risen from 4,668 in 2020 to 4,920 in 2025, adding 250 jobs (5.4%). Output in the MRO sector surged from $1.47 billion to $2.13 billion over the past five years. Average wages reached $134,100 per MRO worker in 2025, reflecting the high number of engineering-related MRO jobs at Boeing and other major contractors.
3 For more detailed descriptions, see: https://www.tinker.af.mil/ and https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/afn/offices/mmac 4 The reported workforce at the FAA Center consists of 3,318 appropriated fund federal civilian employees and 1,784 contract workers and employees at tenant organizations. An unknown share of the personnel reported as working at Tenant Organizations are private sector employees and not federal government employees. As a result, some duplication of the employee count among private sector firms in Figure 2 is possible.
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