Gallery: Coopesa Emphasizes Freighter Conversions At Growing Costa Rican MRO

In July, Costa Rican MRO Coopesa inaugurated a fourth hangar at the Juan Santamaria International Airport in San Jose as part of an increased emphasis on predictable and lucrative freighter conversions.

The new hangar will enable it to handle 15 more aircraft per year, translating into approximately $5 million in additional annual revenues, CEO Kenneth Waugh confirms.

According to Waugh, a “strategic alliance” with Boeing helps justify the expansion as Boeing’s BBAM leasing arm placed an additional firm order for 12 737-800 converted freighters in July 2021. “The Boeing Converted Freighter program is extending the life and enhancing the value of the 737-800s in our fleet,” said Steve Zissis, president and CEO of BBAM. “We are growing our Boeing order book to meet the strong demand we see worldwide for narrowbody freighters.”

“We have five years of 737-800s,” says Waugh, noting that Coopesa works strictly according to Boeing’s engineering drawings for the type, using Boeing parts. He adds that Boeing provides the customers.

Boeing says the 737-800BCF has won more than 250 orders and commitments from more than 20 customers.”

Freighter conversions currently account for 27-30% of Coopesa’s business today, says Waugh, seen here as a 737-800 is painted in the new hangar. “We are going to grow to a 50-50 split,” he says.

The next project in the new hangar will be a 737-800 freighter conversion.

Attending the July 2022 inauguration of the new Coopesa hangar, left to right, were: CEO Kenneth Waugh, U.S. Ambassador to Costa Rica Cynthia Telles, Boeing Vice President for Latin America and the Caribbean Landon Loomis, and Coopesa President Jorge Portuguez.

Hundreds of Coopesa employees attended the inauguration of the new hangar at the Juan Santamaria International Airport in San Jose.

“You strip all seats, all bathrooms, all galleys,” says Waugh. Of particular, “huge” importance, he says, is the cargo door, as full structural integrity must be retained during the job and after the cargo door is installed. “You have to be very meticulous,” he says.

Work on the fuselage exterior as a 737-800 is converted for a new life in cargo service. Coopesa hopes to lower the completion time for a 737-800 freighter conversion from approximately 90 days today to as little as 67 days.

In addition to removing the seats, bins, lavatories and galleys, the passenger aircraft floor is removed and replaced with rollers for managing cargo pallets.

The new Coopesa hangar adds an eighth maintenance position, while a sister structure, to be completed by February 2023, will bring the total to nine.

Looking forward, Coopesa is planning a much larger expansion at the western end of the airport. The first phase, which is expected to be complete by 2025, will grow total maintenance positions to 15.

Once the entire project is complete, Waugh says the MRO’s footprint will grow from approximately 60,000 m² (nearly 646,000 ft.²) to 140,000 m² (1.5 million ft.²).

“The key resource to do maintenance is people,” says Waugh. “We train and develop our own workers.”

Instituto de Formación Aeronautica, located at neighboring Tobias Bolanos International Airport, has a contract with Coopesa to prepare 300 aviation mechanics over the next four years. Waugh says the aspiring mechanics will then receive three years of on-the-job training at Coopesa.

“You need to develop your own people,” he says. “In the end you get the best of the best . . . [This] meets the reality of the industry.” He adds that all of Coopesa’s workers “are co-owners of the company.”