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Employment at B/E Aerospace Inc. has soared while the local manufacturer of aircraft interior products works to turn first-class cabins into airborne hotels.

In just over four years, the company has grown from about 45 to 450 employees in its 900,000-square-foot facility at 1851 S. Pantano Road.

The local B/E plant designs and manufactures "super first- class" luxury suites for commercial airlines — which look like miniature versions of five-star hotel rooms.

The suites vary from airline to airline, but basic features include a seat that converts into a fully flat bed, a flat-screen TV, electrically operated doors and a minibar.

A round-trip flight in such a suite will run a passenger $10,000 to $15,000.

B/E was founded in 1987 as Bach Engineering, with revenues of $3 million. Since then, the Florida-based company has made 23 acquisitions and has approximate revenues of $850 million.

The company's multiple divisions manufacture more than first-class interiors. They develop cabin products for every part of a commercial airplane.

"There's a good chance that everything you touch in a plane, from the seats, to the lighting to the oxygen systems ... was made by B/E," said Doug Rasmussen, B/E vice president and general manager.

The local plant is part of B/E's business jet group, which includes facilities in Miami and Holbrook, N.Y.

Yearly revenues for the segment have grown from about $65 million in 2003 to about $190 million in 2007.

The local company began as Bomhoff Acquisition Corp. in 1999 and focused on building cabinetry for business jets. When it was acquired by B/E in 2002, the focus was still on developing business-jet interiors.

That all changed once the management realized the post-9/11 business-jet market was not picking up, Rasmussen said.

"We continued doing business-jet work for 12 to 15 months (following the acquisition). After that, it was clear the industry was going to keep struggling to come back," he said.

By late 2003, the company's focus was on luxury, first-class interior. Last year, B/E won 80 percent of the super first-class contracts worldwide, Rasmussen said.

Earlier this month, the firm won a $200 million contract to outfit several European airlines with luxury suites.

B/E has developed "one of the best first-class suites in the world," said Nigel Paige, senior vice president for commercial operations for Emirates airline — the official airline of the United Arab Emirates.

B/E produces all the luxury suites for the Emirates' fleets of Boeing 777s and A380s.

"Almost every first class sells out. The suites provide passengers with privacy and individual luxury. ... There's clearly a great demand," Paige said.

Industry estimates put the market value for super first-class suites at $1 billion to $1.6 billion, according to a September 2007 issue of Aircraft Interiors International magazine.

B/E also manufactures suites for Jet Airways — India's largest airline — and others, including Swiss Air and Kingfisher, based in India.

All the first-class work has generated huge leaps in employee numbers at B/E in Tucson.

By 2005, the company grew to 120 employees. In 2006, that number rose to 220. This year, B/E has 450 workers and plans to keep growing for the next three or four years, Rasmussen said.

Nearly 90 percent of those workers were hired locally, said Larry Wilson, B/E's human resources manager.

Some of those workers came from Bombardier Aerospace's former aircraft-finishing operation at Tucson International Airport, Wilson said. Bombardier moved those jobs to Wichita, Kan., and elsewhere starting in 2004, but Bombardier still operates a regional-jet maintenance center here.

To fill the firm's 100 engineering positions, B/E recruited nationally and internationally.

Last year, the company hosted an open house for University of Arizona engineering graduates.

Further developing ties with Arizona colleges is high on B/E's priority list, Rasmussen said. Engineering graduates should know "they don't have to leave Tucson to apply their skills," he added.

On average, a local B/E employee makes $22 an hour, Wilson said.

That's just above the national average, based on figures from the Aerospace Industries Association, which estimates the average wage at $21.88.