According to Paulo Mirpuri, the head of the Hi Fly group, the owner of Mesa, the construction works are to start “in the first quarter of 2019,” last for 18 months and the hangar is expected to start working “in the third semester of 2020.”
Mesa expects to invest “30 million” to construct the hangar, which will create “about 150 jobs over the first three years of activity,” he said.
In statements to Lusa News Agency, the deputy mayor of Beja, Luís Miranda, said that the municipality had “already approved the architectural project and granted a partial license for the installation of the facility and earth-moving,” for the construction of the maintenance hangar.
The project includes the construction of a hangar, workshops and exterior arrangements, with a total area of 9,500 square metres, a technical centre with capacity for large aeroplanes, including the Airbus models A330, A340, A350 and A380.
Mirpuri said that Mesa decided to build the hangar in Beja because it is currently “the only” Portuguese airport that “can accommodate all types of aircraft that belong to the Hi Fly fleet, including the Airbus A380,” the largest commercial aeroplane in the world, and “has available space” for aircraft parking and hangars.