TERUEL AIRPORT, A HIGH FLIGHT BUSINESS

The Aragonese public entity is today the largest parking, maintenance and recycling platform for aircraft in Europe.

Teruel is not a conventional airport. Out of the frantic passenger swoop, aircraft wander here - large and at various stages of their useful life - since they were put into operation seven years ago. A unique airfield in Spain, hence its success, belonging to the Government of Aragon (60%) and the City of Teruel (40%), which has become the largest parking, maintenance and recycling platform for aircraft in Europe.

Known among its clients from more than 40 countries - English, French, German, Portuguese, Russian, Brazilian ... - as PLATA (Teruel Airport Platform), its most artistic and commercial name, this public consortium is responsible for managing both infrastructures such as the investments of the 340 hectares that make up the installation, in which nine people work and receive annual operating income of about three million euros in 2019 that exceeds 50% of operating expenses, achieving profitability in a few years of operation and surpassing revenues to about 20 airports in the national network, explains Alejandro Ibrahim Perera, its first General Director since 2012.

Resources come from the fees, rates and prices charged to airlines, concessionaires and various clients that operate there and that provide preservation services (long-stay accommodation), maintenance and recovery of aircraft, and other pioneering projects such as rocket engine tests among others of aerial work, flight school, drones, aeronautical logistics, etc., details Alejandro Ibrahim.

At present, there are several companies that employ about 400 workers, in addition to the indirect ones generated by the works, logistics or the need for subcontractors. "We are the only airport in Spain dedicated in an innovative way to aeronautical activity and which is focused on environmental industrial reconversion," he adds. The good forecasts mean that for its strong growth it will continue to be invested and soon great works of a double superhangar with a capacity of up to two A380s will begin, a painting aircraft hangar with a capacity of up to A350 and the extension in 37,000 square meters of the parking platform . 

 Source: Cinco Días July 31, 2019