July 24, 2015 – La Fortaleza – Governor Alejandro García Padilla visited today the Lufthansa Technik facilities in Aguadilla, which began operations after receiving a Spirit Airlines Airbus A-320 last Monday, the first airplane that will have regular servicing at the facility.
Total investments in this important economic development project sum $60.4 million, while the long-term benefit for the Puerto Rican economy, across a 30-year span, amounts to $2.2 billion. The project, once completed, will create approximately 400 jobs.
“Once we knew that Lufthansa was looking for the ideal place to establish its first maintenance, repair and reconditioning facility in the Americas, we started dreaming about bringing that project to Puerto Rico. We approached them and were able to convince them of something we always knew: that, among all the possible destinations in the Americas, we were the best for Lufthansa’s plans,” said the Governor.
Lufthansa’s facility in Puerto Rico occupies a total area of 215,000 square feet and in its final configuration will offer five base lines, heavyweight maintenance controls and other maintenance services for narrow-body planes.
“This huge hangar rises in the same place where, 20 years ago, the hope of the transfer of the Ramey Air Base to the Puerto Rican people seemed to vanish. Today, Airport Rafael Hernández starts a new life,” said García Padilla.
Lufthansa Technik’s location in Aguadilla, in the western coast of Puerto Rico, places it within a short flight distance of all the planes of the Airbus A320 family in the Americas.
Meanwhile, 45 Puerto Rican flight mechanics have received training in Germany and will soon join 50 additional mechanics. All of them are now an integral part of the knowledge- and innovation-based economy that Puerto Rico needs to achieve sustainable economic growth.
Lufthansa’s arrival also brings about the creation of the new Aeronautics and Aerospace Institute of Puerto Rico, a partnership between the University of Puerto Rico (UPR, for its Spanish acronym) and the Department of Education. The Institute launched its operations last March with a program at the Aguadilla campus of the UPR jointly with the Puerto Rico Aviation Maintenance Institute (PRAMI) in Ceiba, thus guaranteeing the continuity in the training of flight mechanics. In a period of six months, students can get at the Institute the required certification –through an alliance with Lufthansa Technik – to work as assistants to flight mechanics and get their practice at the company.
“PRAMI has already graduated over 1,000 aviation mechanic students, of which 92% pass testing and get their license,” said the Governor.
At the same time, in this initial stage, seven small- and medium-sized Puerto Rican companies have signed contracts with Lufthansa to provide a wide array of services for the company, such as fuel supply, safety and furniture design, among others.
Lufthansa is the epicenter of the Island’s aerospace industry, which also includes Honeywell and its aerospace technology laboratory at Moca; Infosys in Aguadilla; and other big corporations such as Infotech, Lockheed-Martin, ESSIG Research, Florida Turbine and Axon, among others, all of them concentrated in the northwest area of Puerto Rico.
