Jet Aviation officially added a second Caribbean location and the 10th in the Americas in July when it held the grand opening of the San Juan facility, formerly known as Pazos FBO, at Luis Muñoz Marin International Airport (SJU) in Puerto Rico. The $6 million terminal offers the only U.S. Customs facility integrated within aCaribbean FBO. The facility made its debut in December, but according to Jet Aviation officials the deal to make it part of Jet Aviation’s network stretched back before construction of the new two-story glass-sheathed building began.

“We’re not here just to put another dot on the map. We’re here to develop partnerships with people like [company founder and president of Jet Aviation San Juan] Jose Maldonado. We’re here to develop the Puerto Rican economy and drive business aviation traffic, and we’re confident we can do that,” said David Paddock, senior vice president of regional business operations for the U.S., adding that the in-house U.S. Customs facility, which opened earlier this year, is a big part of the appeal. “That customs facility is already driving a significant amount of traffic through San Juan to other locations internationally.”

“A lot of transient traffic from Central and South America comes through here, mainly from Brazil and Argentina,” added Maldonado.The facility, one of two service providers at SJU, attracts at least 60 percent of the business aviation traffic at the airport, he said.

Room for Growth

The 12,500-sq-ft terminal offers a spacious atrium passenger lobby, pilots' lounge with recliners, two flight-planning areas, a shower, a glass-enclosed 12-seat A/V-equipped conference room along with a smaller, private 10-seat conference room, a large catering preparation and storage kitchen, and a licensed deli/bar that can serve refreshments and stronger beverages to passengers and off-duty crew. The location always has several rental cars on hand as a result of its relationship with Leaseway but has open-door agreements with all the major rental providers.

Today the facility has 5.5 acres at the airport. It still occupies the original hangar behind the new terminal, and it has another 26,000 sq ft of hangar space leased to permanent tenants. It is refurbishing another 28,800-sq-ft hangar, which can accommodate aircraft up to a Falcon 2000, for tenant and transient use, and it will soon break ground on a $2.3 million, 20,000-sq-ft structure directly across from the terminal, which will be able to shelter anything up to a Boeing 737. Once that hangar is completed, the original 7,000-sq-ft hangar will be demolished, opening some prime ramp parking space. The company has a 20-year lease on the property and is seeking a 10-year extension to justify the recent capital expediture.

Another area of future expansion is maintenance. According to Maldonado, the location has mechanics on staff who can perform initial troubleshooting and if approved by the operator can make minor repairs on aircraft. He plans eventually to add a full FAA Part 145 repair station.

Currently the World Fuels affiliate and member of the Air Elite Network has a staff of 50, which will expand during the peak winter months. The line service staff undergoes NATA’s Safety 1st course along with safety management system training from Aviation Business Strategies Group. World Fuels provides fuel handling and testing training, and the facility has been integrated into Jet Aviation’s training program as well.

The location serves as the primary fuel dispenser for the World Fuels tank farm at SJU, and in addition to the 2.5 million gallons of fuel it pumps for based and transient general aviation customers, it handles another 12 million gallons a year as the supplier for Federal Express, DHL and several airlines. To handle that demand, the FBO has three 10,000-gallon and three 5,000-gallon jet-A tankers, along with two 3,500-gallon and one 2,000-gallon avgas trucks.

Posted hours of operation are 5 a.m. until midnight, seven days a week, with after-hours callout, but Maldonado noted that because of the tempo of operations, and the location’s customer-first philosophy, it’s rare when there isn’t staff at the facility 24 hours a day. “That service and that interaction with the customer has to be the main purpose of the business,” he told AIN. “We’ll bend over backwards to make sure that everything works.”

The U.S. Customs facility, which began operations in January, is open from 8 a.m. until midnight, and the FBO has signed an agreement to reimburse the service for any overtime. That cost is factored into the customer’s bill. “It’s a reasonable rate, and the people who come through and need these services will not have a problem with it,” Maldonado said, adding that if customers' documents are in order they can count on a half-hour quick turn.