In January, the American aerospace company Pratt & Whitney announced a major expansion of its manufacturing facility in Asheville. The expansion marks both a strategic business move and a partnership with the Asheville community that will create 325 new jobs.

Pratt & Whitney, an RTX business, designs, manufactures, and services aircraft engines and auxiliary power units. The company’s Asheville facility, which opened in 2022, produces high-pressure turbine airfoils, an important component in aircraft jet engines. 

The decision to expand the Asheville facility was an intentional one. Pratt & Whitney took a comprehensive approach when considering where to expand, accounting for local economic conditions, the strategic value of establishing a new facility, and the level of community support available. Some of the same factors that drew Pratt & Whitney to open a facility here contributed to the decision to expand. 

“The state of North Carolina has a very positive view on attracting business to the area and also supports business creation through the economic development programs that it has,” said Dan Field, general manager of Pratt & Whitney Asheville, citing Golden LEAF Foundation, the N.C. Department of Commerce Job Development Investment Grant program, and the Workforce Education Programs at N.C. Community Colleges as deciding factors in establishing Pratt & Whitney’s Western North Carolina location. “We could’ve gone to other sites that were near larger cities, but when we met with the county here, the Chamber of Commerce and our local partners here at Biltmore Farms, we really felt that this was the best location for our investment where we could have the most impact and really help drive growth in the economy of Western North Carolina.” 

However, the fact that there isn’t another Pratt & Whitney facility nearby meant that the Asheville facility had to train a workforce from the ground up—an enormous task made easier by support from the regional community colleges. “Without that net that the community college system helped us cast, [which helped us] shorten our training lead time, we wouldn't have been able to do this right,” said Field. 

Nearly 90 percent of the current workforce at Pratt & Whitney was hired locally, many without previous experience in the aerospace industry. “We didn't import talent from another location, so we needed that extra boost of training from the community college system to help us get those people up to speed quickly,” said Field. 

Prior to opening the Asheville facility, Pratt & Whitney’s production process was spread across four different states. Parts would travel to New Hampshire, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and New York for various steps of their assembly. “One part would travel just on trucks driving about 2500 miles,” said Field. “Now, inside the four walls of one facility, we travel that part around, and it goes about a mile and a half before we deliver it.”

The current operations at the Asheville facility include machining, coating, and hole drilling and finishing. The expansion will add a casting foundry where the rough shape of the airfoil will be created. “At that point, we'll have a truly further vertically integrated value stream inside the four walls of one facility here in Western North Carolina,” said Field. 

However, the expansion won’t be without its challenges, one of which is the lack of a local knowledge base in casting. “While we do know how to do airfoil castings—we have a small development foundry back in Connecticut—we haven't done it at scale in a manufacturing facility that Pratt & Whitney owns and runs,” said Field. “And there isn't that type of technology around here [and therefore no] workforce base that we can pull from.” Again, Field notes that the company will be relying on higher education partners like Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College, Western Carolina University, and University of North Carolina Asheville. 

The first pieces of equipment for the new casting foundry are expected to arrive at the end of 2026. “This is a complicated process, and these parts have a long build cycle,” said Field. “I expect that we will probably be making our first parts in the middle of 2027.” This is when the community will begin to see an increase in hiring and job growth as a result of the expansion. 

The expansion announcement not only promises a direct economic impact for the region, but also indicates that Pratt & Whitney is invested here for the long-term. The jet engine is a long service asset, meaning that Pratt & Whitney doesn’t make most of their money on selling an engine—they make it on spare sales and overhaul contracts. “That’s really our business model,” said Field. “We'll be here for decades to come.”