ACCIONA has been chosen as airline JetSMART’s exclusive ground handling agent for airports in Chile. ACCIONA Service, through its Airport Services business, has started to provide full handling services to this new airline. In a first phase and as JetSMART opens new routes, the service will be delivered at the country’s six busiest airports: Santiago de Chile, Antofagasta, La Serena, Concepción, Calama and Copiapó.

In the coming months, JetSMART, a newly-created airline focused on low-cost domestic flights, will expand steadily to cover a total of twelve airports in Chile. It plans to fly routes to other countries in the region in the future.

The Airport Services business has a track record of over 20 years and serves more than 100 airlines. It provides handling services at such airports as Frankfurt, Düsseldorf, Palma de Mallorca, Barcelona and Gran Canaria.
The handling business is part of ACCIONA’s Infrastructure division, which has been operating in Chile since 1993.

ACCIONA’s Infrastructure division has carried out major projects to build motorways, hospitals, hydroelectric plants and mining infrastructure; it currently operates the concession for Ruta 160, a 91km motorway in the Bio Bio region.

In addition to its recent entry into the handling business, the service area also provides freight forwarding services. ACCIONA also designed, built and operates a large desalination plant for the mining industry in Copiapó and has built wastewater treatment facilities in Valdivia, Osorno, La Ligua and Temuco.

ACCIONA Energy is one of the main renewable energy operators in Chile, where it has built and operates the largest photovoltaic plant in Latin America, El Romero, with peak capacity of 246MW, and also has the Punta Palmeras 45MW wind farm in the Coquimbo region.

In the two recent auctions, the company was awarded contracts to supply a total of 1,116GWh; it has 270MW of wind power projects scheduled for construction in the near future, and a strong pipeline of wind and photovoltaic facilities in development.