We will now go to the speakers First, Dr.
Alejandro Ibrahim Pereira Director General of
Teruel Airport and Director of the consortium PLATA
While he takes a microphone position I wanted to make
a brief statement Why have we chosen Teruel Airport?
Because it is the only airport in Spain that is industrial
It is not a traditional airport for
passengers Although it has ICAO and IATA codes
But for now, I don't know what to say I'm not even willing to fly
In commercial flights, I mean It is an industrial airport
And that is very important in the context of the subject
So, without further delay, I give the floor to Dr.
Alejandro Ibrahim Pereira
Hello, good morning I suppose I will be presented here now
Good morning, my name is Alejandro Ibrahim
I am the Director General of Teruel Airport
And the President of the Aeronautical,
Spatial and Defense Cluster of Aragon
Which is a community that has about 1.3 million inhabitants
And we are dedicated to an aeronautical activity in Teruel
I have been the Director of this airport for 13 and a half years
When I arrived at the airport, there were zero
planes, zero passengers, zero of everything
And we have become right now the largest
Aircraft parking, maintenance and recycling center in Europe
At the airport, what we do is the treatment
of the useful life of the entire plane
From the moment it leaves the factory until
it is painted, maintained, parked, recycled
There is also plane recycling, preserved,
modified, modifications in the cabin
And everything that is related to the
aeronautical industrial treatment of the
aircraft Then we will see that there is also
another series of activities at the airport
Of course we have fuel, we supply more
than 3 million liters of fuel per year
But hey, we'll see it step by step
I'm going to focus the presentation on
the sustainability and innovation part
Which is what characterizes us as an airport
As I mentioned, this airport began its operational activities in 2013
Although the consortium of the airport of Teruel was managed in 2006
It is formed by 60% by the government of
Aragon and 40% by the municipality of Teruel
Around 220 million euros have already been invested
And we plan to invest next year, only next year, 70 million
Apart from another 40 million companies
that are installed at the airport
As I mentioned, we have right now 5.5 million
square meters Capacity up to 400 large aircraft
During the pandemic we were the airport
that had the most parked aircraft in Europe
As a curious fact, we had 23 A380, the
largest passenger aircraft in the world
And well, especially double-gate aircraft
We currently generate 850 direct jobs
Plus more than 1,400 indirect jobs
And we are the largest employer in the province of Teruel
Which has a capital of 36,000 inhabitants
There you see a photo just when we were ending the pandemic
There are new infrastructures, like a double hangar for A380
At that time, the imperial need to have areas to park aircraft
We had to compact land areas where, as you can
see in the background, these aircraft were parked
To be able to preserve it during the time they could not be in flight
As I mentioned, this airport has the capacity to park this aircraft
To maintain this aircraft, preserve this
aircraft and dismantle this aircraft
At this airport they have already been dismantled
We are going through the fourth A380, in
the world there are around 200 aircraft
And as I say, many of them pass through the
airport of Teruel to do their maintenance
Especially the companies Emirate, Etihad, Lufthansa, etc.
Main characteristics, I already mentioned that
we are the largest in Europe in terms of MRO
We park aircraft, it has little airspace congestion
The climate is quite dry and sunny, that
benefits the parking of aircraft long-distance
Especially when companies change clients, change activities
Leasing companies that are the owners of those aircraft
We are an international airport, the aircraft come
in direct flight from Asia and the United States
And there are qualified personnel in maintenance
More or less, to give you an idea of the development of the airport
This is the third expansion that we are proposing
at the airport In 13 years we have been operating
It has a large field where the aircraft are parked
We also have an aerospace area in the background where PLD Space is
Which is a company that is developing a rocket, also uses kerosene
Then we will talk a little more about fuel
And we have 18 hangars and ships for parking,
maintenance, even preservation of these aircraft
And store materials, in this case of our Airbus client
Original pieces of the A380 and the A400M
And non-destructive tests are done, which are the necessary tests for the knowledge and development
of the advances that aviation is having in this type of model throughout its useful life
Activities that we have, we started zero activity as I said 13 years ago
But right now we already have long-distance parking,
maintenance, parking, recycling, painting, research topics
There is an aerospace center that is being
installed for sustainability issues, basically
And communications and also related to the subject of materials
Center of Excellence for UAVs, flight schools, suborbital flights
Then I will talk a little about the airships,
the dirigibles that we also have at the airport
We have the photovoltaic plants that we are
installing in a continuous and acidic way
That will be interesting for the future development
of hydrogen and the activity of the use of biofuels
We have finished a painting hangar a few years ago
Currently there is a company called Aerospace International
Cuttings that is painting these double-gate aircraft
In fact, this week the president of the government of Aragon will inaugurate the start of
another hangar of these dimensions with an investment of 20 million for another painting hangar
This is the hangar of the 380, which is the hangar that was finished for
the maintenance of these aircraft, which are the largest in the world
They come on a direct flight, because Emirates of these Asian countries come directly
to such and we return them by filling with fuel around
140,000 liters of fuel Some of them also have SAF
There you see a retrospective of the
field area where we park these aircraft
Investments that we have planned, as I say, we are in continuous
expansion of the airport in the green area that you see there
It is planned to be a hangar for dirigibles, we
have also expanded a capacity for 70 more aircraft
We are also doing another area for the
development of rockets that we will now see, etc.
Due to this singularity, we have been lucky that we have been given a series of
awards for the type of activity and innovation that characterizes the airport
One of them we collected in Beijing as
the most innovative airport in the world
This was with the Quality Innovation Awards, which by the way, today are delivered
in the Higher Council of Scientific Research, they are delivered this year from Spain
There is a finalist and the finalist from Spain who remains
competes later at a world level with
other 80 countries We got this in 2019
Companies that are in the airport, we have many, but basically,
maintenance companies, Tarmac, Airbus, BP for fuel issues
Coetes, Elson, Delsat for stratospheric flights related to
sustainability issues because they use in this case electric energy
IAC for paintings, air for recycling, Ministry of Defense,
Vertipuertos, non-destructive tests of the
Airbus group The Aragon government, which is a
technician for maintenance of aircraft
The largest company in the world that makes turbines
of aircraft, sorry in this case of air generators
We have 475 air generator blades between 120,000 square
meters stored with an investment of 1,200 million euros
That will be used 100 kilometers away, not at the airport, and
storage has been developed at the airport for a year and a half
And we also collaborate with several technological centers,
as you can see there, with the Aragon Technological Institute
We are already making an aerospace center at the same airport
Tarmac is our main client, which belongs
to the Airbus group, 33% Safran and Suez
This company is the largest parking company for large European aircraft
And then what it does, as you can see there, it
parks aircraft, also recycles them and maintains them
Somehow, as you can see, a very important activity of
aeronautics is to use those aircraft in their final cycle
To take advantage of that material, all the
material of those aircraft has to be recovered
We also have at the airport the company PLED Space since 2014
It is the first Spanish private company and
the largest in Europe as a private company
That is developing the Miura 1 rocket, which was
launched in 2023, and another that is the Miura 5
All the tests are being done now at the airport
and will be launched next year from French Guiana
This is an orbital rocket that has two phases and six engines
All the engines and all the tests of that rocket are
being developed in 155,000 square meters at Teruel airport
There was a video, but I think we play a
little, there you see some photos of the such
There are already 400 people in this company
We also have issues related to drones,
the drones will have an electrical
issue And this I also wanted to tell you
about the development of the dirigibles
We are making a hangar for dirigibles of 40
million, which will be the European base of Sky
It is a company that is operating now
in the United States, in New Mexico
And that flies to the stratosphere at 20 kilometers high
for issues related to communications, the environment
And implications of fire issues, etc.
There you see a little the dimensions of the hangar
that we are doing 60 meters high, 75 wide, 370 deep
This is the type of aircraft that is used,
which is not with passengers, logically
Basically it is with equipment and sensors, it is like
a low-end satellite, in this case at 20 kilometers
We have another client, which is Elson, which is also
developing the same technology of stratospheric flights
But in this case we are talking about fixed-wing equipment
They are also flying at the Teruel airport
On the subject of dismantling, we have another company that
is also installed at the airport in a 40-year concession
In that you see in green, which will allow us to dismantle aircraft
There is a project near the airport with
an investment of 1,150 million euros
To produce 75,000 tons per year of SAF in 10 hectares
This plant intends to be operational in 2030
It will therefore use solar resources,
that is why photovoltaic is important
Also, of course, wind energy and water is also
necessary And from waste, agriculture, etc.
Everything related to SAF can be prepared
You know that since this year it is already mandatory to
use 2% of the fuel used in passenger commercial aircraft
Curiously, as I said, we also had air generator
blades stored for a project of 763 megawatts
Relatively close to the airport and that will
also allow that energy to produce the SAF
Because in the end, we are talking about energy, but in
energy, we all know, it does not grow and it transforms
So we have to transform energy of another type,
in this case electric or solar or photovoltaic
To be able to obtain the energy that would be obtained from the SAF
Well, here as I mentioned the prize they
gave us, we are in several European projects
Here I put some examples with several clients and
several companies from Europe, from seven countries
Related to composite materials, energy and fuel issues too
Vicente, for example, is a bio-degradation
issue for the use of composite materials
Enelax with robotics issues for the use of aircraft cash cut
Envives, the different use of materials that are easily recyclable
There you see the companies like the Universidad
Limericks or companies of polymers, etc.
And in Erohub we are also studying the
reconversion of the blades of air generators
We belong to the Aeronautical and Aerospace Cluster of Aragon
Well, in fact, I am the president right now
We have grown a lot, we already have about 70 partners
And we are also promoting the defense hub of Aragon
That allows, among all the companies that
make more than 160, to do the dual activity
The dual use of technology for both
defense applications and civil applications
Recently, the Minister of Defense, Margarita
Robles, was in September at our airport
And announced an investment of 42 million
for the Aerial Mobility Training Center
Which is together with NATO, will be the reference Spanish center
For the training of pilots of air and military transport
That have their missions in many parts of the world
It must be said that these training is not only done in
Spain, but we do it with 14 countries of the European Union
That come to train at the Saragossa Air Base and
also do their operations at the airport of Teruel
Here you see the A400M, there are 17 of
these planes at the Saragossa Air Base And there are also 35 F-18
The Saragossa Air Base and the Torrejón Air Base are
the only bases in Spain that are directed by a general
A little for the importance and relevance that these two bases have
in the Air Force and the space of the Spanish Ministry of Defense
Well, this is a very quick thing, today we are talking about biofuels
Biofuels are necessary for everything I have commented, we are
inside the air transport, without that, the planes would not fly
And it is a challenge, it is a challenge that has the
root of this development that you are seeing of aviation
Notice that in 2024 we are talking about 4.
6 billion passengers flying a year in commercial transport
But it is foreseen that in 2050, that is, within 25
years, we will be able to reach 12.4 billion
passengers Of course, we are going to multiply
the figure by 3 and it is a barbarity
So, obviously, if we are now around 35,000 commercial planes,
we are talking about planes of a single aisle, double aisle
Apart from, of course, military aviation, general aviation, etc.
If we do not remedy this European
mandate that comes from an imperial need
That the sustainability of aviation is necessary,
just as it is doing in other industries
Well, surely we would be left behind and we would start to
increase that 3.5, 4.5 of CO2 emissions that aviation represents
But of course, if we do not remedy this, it will continue to increase
As for the evolution, also say that Spain is one
of the most representative countries worldwide
As for passenger air traffic, right now in Spain,
2 out of 3 tourists who come to Spain come by plane
This means that according to the forecasts in 2050-52 we can be
the fifth country in the world with the most passenger air traffic
Right now we are the second after this, in this case, France
As for tourists who come by plane and therefore the development
that will be in the next few years in aviation is very significant
I put this a little bit like we had to talk about the
first one, to say that the problem is important, right?
We are talking about biofuels, not by chance, but because
it has a very relevant impact on commercial development
Economic development of world air transport
and well this is an image of the future
The future is getting faster, the planes
are increasingly being recycled in more time
It is expected that in the next 15 years
more than 20,000 planes will be recycled
Now we have around 35,000, we will have
45,000 planes plus those that are recycled
This means that right now 600 planes are being recycled around the world
In Teruel it is 10% of the world fleet that we
are recycling, but logically this is growing
This means that the evolution is getting bigger and bigger,
the current planes pollute 70% less than those of 30 years ago
But all the tasks are not solved, there comes a
time when kerosene contaminates in a relevant way
And therefore we have to work on the development of
biofuel and that is what is going to be debated
today And well, I hope that later in the
questions we will go into more detail
And thank you all for your assistance, tell you that
from Teruel you can reach the sky as you are seeing
We are conquering it, we also have a project with the European
Space Agency to create a startup training center in Teruel
And we hope that everything continues its course and
we can be part of this industry as it has
been so far And thank you all very much
Thank you very much Dr. Ibrahimo for this wonderful presentation
And it is true that it is worth the
public-private collaboration in this installation
In this project that is taking a wonderful turn for
the population, for the socio-economic sustainability
The territory where it is located, the territorial veteration
Sustainability is not only economic and
social It is important to emphasize that
And the Teruel airport is known to be in a very low density population
And in line with what the institutional
committee commented, Dr. Pastor and Dr.
Maroto The idea of this event is to disseminate, to
make known how aviation can be sustainable
How it is making an impromptu investment effort
Improvement of sustainable fuel, second generation
as we will see in the second block of the event
How the aircraft are more efficient and how they consume less, much less
Even with very high operating prognosis
As the Spaniard said, Spain is the most touristic country in the world
More than 100 million, ahead of France
And that also has to be intervened because practically,
well, more than 8 out of 10 people who
visit us, they come, they enter by air