Airport with no Passengers

Over the last year the demand for aircraft storage facilities has increased dramatically. As the industry continues growing the demand for facilities becomes more important. The two giant aircraft manufacturers Boeing and Airbus have predicted that the industry will continue growing at the rate of 4.5% (Airbus) and 4.8% (Boeing) for global commercial passenger air traffic from 2016 to 2035, which would mean the introduction of roughly 30,000 new commercial aircraft. These figures outline the importance of these facilities around the world. However, not all the places are adequate for these purposes since the conservation of the aircraft is imperative. Hence, airlines look for arid, desert and dry climate conditions to store planes.

Unlike junkyards these facilities are used by airlines to carry out maintenance operations, keep their aircraft safe while waiting to sort out legal and financial issues, or simply because of fleet renovation so old planes are kept for spare parts. However, the main reason is because of the fluctuating market conditions of the industry, as the demand is not constant airlines struggle to adjust the capacity to match them and these places are the solution (generally speaking) to store aircraft that are not going to be operated during low-demand times and, in turn, reduce costs in their home base.

At present there are only three places in the western world that count with the right requirements for these purposes. The Mojave Air and Space Port located in the desert of the state of California where more than 60 companies work on aerospace engineering, technology developments and of course storage. Another one is Pau in France run by Tarmac Aerosave Company however; it is running out of space. Lastly, the most recent one is the Teruel Airport in Spain located between Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia, especially this airport was regarded as a ghost airport with no utility apart from a graveyard. However, the management of the airport has turned around this idea .As non-passenger related activities have been sent away from consolidated airports, Teruel has been their solution as a new hub.

Nowadays, the airport offers services such as: rocket testing, drone research and pilot training and obviously aircraft storage, which in turn, has improved the economic conditions of the area. Moreover, as a recent facility in Europe for sure it will see even more growth because of the high travel-consumer increase that triggers more space for planes that this nice place in Spain accounts for.