In PLATA (Teruel Airport Platform) you don’t see the daily scenes of a typical airport. There is not the usual frenzy in any airport of travelers, suitcases, boarding passes… Europe -up to 127 planes have been ‘parked’ at a time at its facilities- thanks to the presence of Tarmac, an Airbus subsidiary , which on August 6, 2013 began its industrial activity in Teruel. And above all, this airport without passengers, is already one of the main economic engines and job creation in the Aragonese province. And it is that those of Teruel are unique facilities in Europe and leading worldwide within the aeronautical parking, maintenance and recycling sector.
The airport was promoted by the former president of Aragon, Marcelino Iglesias, in the years of the real estate bubble and waste, and at the time it was branded as “madness” like other infrastructures of the style developed in those years and that have had very different luck. such as the aerodromes of Castellón, Huesca or Ciudad Real. Today, however, there is already talk of the ‘miracle’ of the Teruel airport, which is run by a public consortium in which the Government of Aragon has 60% and the Teruel city council with 40%.
In this decade of operation, the first plane landed on March 25, 2013, the airport complex has recorded 18,176 operations, 77.5 million euros have been invested in it and has generated nearly 350 direct jobs and three times more than indirectly, until it became one of the main labor and economic motors of the city of lower Aragon. When the expansion works that are being carried out on it are completed, Teruel will be the third airport in Spain to be expanded after Barajas and El Prat.
The same Minister of Territorial Structure, Mobility and Housing of the Government of Aragon, José Luis Soro, highlighted at the last meeting of the Board of Directors, at the end of the year, the investment of 20 million euros carried out during 2022 “to continue expanding the facilities and generating more business opportunities and more employment”.
And it is that the infrastructure has been growing by leaps and bounds over the years and currently the installed companies give direct work to 350 people, a figure that is expected to triple in the next three years after an expansion of 200 hectares, permit duplicator la superficially available.
Teruel AirportTeruel Airport
“The key was making the brave, risky and audacious decision to create an airport in Teruel, which had to be industrial and specialized in aircraft parking, recycling and painting”, explains Soro, “and we are incapable of knowing how far we will go within of ten years”. Thus, the investment of 20 million made this past year “is transformed into employment, the structuring of the territory and the creation of opportunities to fight against depopulation”, he adds.
And 2023 will be “an important year” because the work that is being done will be diversified “even more”, since the painting warehouse will be finished -which will generate annual income of 755,000 euros- and a new hangar for two Airbus 380s. These two Actions, added to the paving of the fourth phase of the parking campaign, the paving of the temporary parking areas, the creation of a road in the space area or the expropriations for future extensions, will add up to an investment of 13 million euros.
Likewise, the director of the Teruel Airport, Alejandro Ibrahim, comments that intense work is being carried out to continue attracting companies. In addition to completing the aircraft maintenance cycle and adding new activities, such as painting, work is also being done to support the development of the industry linked to drones and remote control aircraft. In the same way, indicates the director, the airport is involved in research projects for the recycling and use of materials used in aircraft.
At the Teruel airport, do not look for travelers, suitcases… or the Spanish Space Agency, which Teruel opted for, but which Pedro Sánchez conceded to Seville… Teruel is an “industrial” airport in which, although maintenance is now Aircraft is its main business niche, the germ was to dismantle large aircraft, already obsolete and that had already exceeded their useful life of around 25 years. Thus, some 15 or 20 operations of this type continue to take place in Teruel, in which the plane is emptied, cut into pieces and some parts, such as parts of the engine in good condition or electronic elements, are returned to the client, stored or used as a spare. Likewise, elements such as aluminum are cut, sold by weight and financed for the industry. It is the day to day of the airport without passengers
