BlueSky breaks ground on a $54M San Juan FBO with on-site U.S. customs

Ground broke on a $54 million FBO earlier this week at Luis Muñoz Marín International (TJSJ) in Puerto Rico. The facility is planned to open in 2028 and is designed to ease two issues: a shortage of Caribbean hangar space and the slog of clearing customs at the main terminal. What the $54M buys The FBO facility will include an 8,000 sq ft executive terminal, over 60,000 sq ft of hangar space and about 275,000 sq ft of ramp that can support aircraft from light jets to ultra-long-range aircraft. The hangar space will be divided among three 20,000 sq ft hangars. It will also feature an integrated U.S. Customs and Border Protection inspection facility, so international arrivals will be able to clear customs at the FBO. BlueSky claims that it is the largest private investment in Puerto Rican business aviation infrastructure in over a decade. The developer who built the incumbent Senior partner of BlueSky San Juan, José Maldonado, was the one who built Pazos FBO at the same field, before it was later acquired by Jet Aviation. The two current FBOs at TJSJ are Jet Aviation and Airport Aviation Services. Jet Aviation offers hangar space, while Airport Aviation Services advertises on-site U.S. customs. A cleaner Caribbean gateway More ramp capacity and on-site customs could make the airport more attractive as a technical stop and operational base for flight departments, charter operators, and fractional providers. The addition of hangar space in a region running short on it could help ease the region's hangar crunch and provide operators with another customs-processing option in the Caribbean. What to watch The facility is scheduled to be completed in summer 2028 and begin operations the following fall. When it does, it could shift where operators base and transit in the Caribbean. The irony is that Maldonado already reshaped this field once before, building the FBO that became today's Jet Aviation. Whether his new facility pulls Caribbean traffic toward TJSJ, and away from the incumbent he helped create, is the question worth watching between now and 2028. Find FBOs and airport services at your Caribbean gateway on GlobalAir.com.