One of the aeronautical symbols of the great financial crisis of 2008 in Spain, the Ciudad Real International Airport, the first of its kind to be developed with private investment, will be reborn thanks to an agreement that the new administration has signed with Sabena Technics to install an aircraft maintenance center.
The agreement, which will be valid for 25 years, will facilitate the creation of 150 jobs in the first five years, projecting to serve an average of 100 aircraft per year. According to local media reports, the Spanish subsidiary Sabena Technics CQM has already begun the process of selecting its personnel, who will be trained in France.
In statements to the EFE agency, Luis Torrente, CEO of Ciudad Real International Airport (CRIA), the airport administrator, said that the intention is to consolidate Ciudad Real in the aeronautical maintenance sector by expanding the portfolio of services they already offer to airlines and lessors. In Spain, Teruel has been a remarkable success story in this regard.
For this reason, they are also looking to attract companies that provide aircraft painting services, engine and component maintenance, and parts management and logistics, among others. To support this expansion, CRIA plans to build two new hangars in the medium term.
In parallel, CRIA is looking for a «top-level» company to carry out the operation of its 7,200 square meter air cargo terminal, 2,000 of which are refrigerated, which also has authorization as a Border Inspection Point of the European Union, enabling it to import perishable products for human and animal consumption.
Regarding the sustainable agenda, the company expects to complete its self-consumption plans in June with the installation of photovoltaic panels with 1 megawatt of power, while advancing a project to supply industries that install through photovoltaic solar and hydrogen energy.
CRIA has owned the airport since 2018 and obtained the opening license in 2019 with the aim of starting to develop it as a new aeronautical maintenance hub the following year, but the pandemic delayed the plans.
Airport infrastructure in Ciudad Real
The Ciudad Real airport is located on a 1,234-hectare plot of land in the homonymous province, about 200 kilometers south of Madrid.
It has a 4,000-meter-long by 60-meter-wide runway and a 350,000-square-meter platform.
Inaugurated in 2008 as a «low-cost» alternative to Madrid-Barajas Airport, the Ciudad Real airport was never able to consolidate its position and became unviable for airlines, receiving its last commercial flight in 2011.
