Plane servicing center to revive ghost airport
THE MORIBUND Enrique A. Jimenez de Colón airport will get a new lease of life in 2018, not by moving passengers but by fixing the planes they fly in from other facilities.
Currently, some 14 private planes land at the airport each week or an average of two a day. The only movement of people recorded there is of the approximately 10 employees who maintain the facilities reports La Prensa.
It was another Ricardo Martinelli “flagship” project costing $58 million, and opened in 2013 with a “ Mission accomplished” flourish by the then president.
The Board of Directors of Tocumen SA has moved on the grounded, white elephant and given its approval to the proposal of a Panamanian company dedicated to maintenance service to develop an aircraft repair station at the airport, which will require an investment of approximately $35 million.
After signing the contract, the company will have one year to start construction and two years to complete the work meaning that the workshop could begin operations during the third quarter of 2018, conveniently near the next election date.
The proponent company, which sources Tocumen preferred not to reveal its name until the contract is signed, proposed to creae workshop in an area of 40 thousand square meters (4 hectares) of land within Boeing 737 aircraft, 727, 757 and Airbus narrow body. Later, it will increase its maintainability for wide body aircraft.
It is intended that once work begins , the activity will generates 600 direct jobs and 300 indirect and will one of the most advanced workshops in the region,able to offer its services to companies operating in the American continent at a cost less than the competition.
Currently, many of these services are only offered in Miami.
ccording to information from Tocumen, the infrastructure will include regulations of the US Civil Aviation Authority,, Europe and Panama, approved by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) , for its acronym in English) and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA)
On a tour of the airport in May, it was found that there no commercial airline or cargo carrier, the initial motivation for its construction, has used the facilities, capable of receiving aircraft of the same size as the Tocumen International Airport.
Franklin Carrillo, commercial vice president of Tocumen, said at the time that the fact that this business was not realized did not mean that others were not being studied. Among them creating an academy for pilots,
According to Carrillo, Tocumen has received several proposals to develop these businesses.
