By Kevin Mead From Caribbean Business

UTC Aerospace Systems is expanding its operation in Puerto Rico through a nearly $25 million investment that is credited with creating 200 jobs over the past year.

Gov. Alejandro García Padilla visited the company’s facility in the south coast town of Santa Isabel on Tuesday, touting a $15 million investment by UTC Aerospace Systems last year and plans to spend another $9 million this year.

UTC Aerospace Systems has inked incentive accords with the Puerto Rico Industrial Development Co. that a job creation and retention and infrastructure improvements.

The center in the Felicia Industrial Park was opened 22 years ago and churns out some 163,000 electronic parts and components annually including electronic circuit breakers and power distribution systems. UTC Aerospace Systems currently employs 1,300 people in Puerto Rico.

Headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., UTC Aerospace Systems is one of the world’s largest suppliers of technologically advanced aerospace and defense products. It designs, manufactures and services systems and components and provides integrated solutions for commercial, regional, business and military aircraft, helicopters and other platforms. It is also a major supplier to international space programs.

UTC Aerospace Systems has approximately 150 sites operating in 26 countries, with 50 percent of these sites located outside the United States. It was formed by United Technologies Corporation in August 2012 by combining two companies: Goodrich Corporation and Hamilton Sundstrand.

“These new jobs are evidence that our policy of strengthening and diversifying Puerto Rico’s industrial bases and identifying emerging markets like aerospace is paying off,” García Padilla said.

UTC Aerospace’s expansion in Puerto Rico marks another positive step in the island government’s efforts to boost a growing aerospace industry.

“We are an ideal place for manufacturing because of our highly skilled and productive workforce,” the governor said. “Our fiscal autonomy gives us advantages unmatched by any other U.S. jurisdiction but we are covered by federal regulations including intellectual property and banking protections, among others.”

Puerto Rico’s aerospace cluster currently hosts, among others, operations of Lockheed Martin, Honeywell Aerospace, Pratt & Whitney/Infotech, Hamilton Sundstrand and Essig Research. The former Ramey Air Base in the northwest coast town of Aguadilla, a one-time B-52 bomber home that boasts the longest runway in the Caribbean, has emerged as the hub of the local industry but other satellite sites dot the island.

The aerospace industry has been a bright spot this year as Puerto Rico grapples with deep job losses amid an economic downturn dating back to 2006.

Honeywell Aerospace announced in April it will invest nearly $30 million to establish a new laboratory in Puerto Rico in a development first reported by CARIBBEAN BUSINESS in March.

The electromagnetic compatibility and environmental test laboratory in the western town of Moca, which will create 310 new jobs, will support the main capabilities of Honeywell’s global aerospace and defense operation in the areas of app and software development and aeronautics engineering design. It will be built in a 73,000-sqaure-foot facility at Las Américas Technology Park, with construction slated to begin in the third quarter and operations targeted to start in the third quarter of 2015.

This will be Honeywell Aerospace’s second site in Puerto Rico, complementing its already successful operation in Aguadilla, where the company employs 950 people. Honeywell Aerospace established operations in Puerto Rico in 2007.

Other important investments in the aerospace sector are taking place in island’s northwestern region, including Lufthansa Technik’s recently announced plans to spend $20 million to set up an aircraft maintenance and repair operation, which will employ about 400 people, at the Aguadilla airport.

Earlier this year leading Indian IT outsourcer Infosys announced it would invest $9 million over two years in an operation in Puerto Rico that is expected to create 300 jobs. Infosys will provide outsourcing services within the defense and aerospace cluster centered around the former air base.

The expansions fit squarely into efforts by Gov. Alejandro García Padilla and his predecessor, former Gov. Luis Fortuño, to give lift to the island’s aerospace industry, which is one of the key pillars of an economic diversification strategy that includes life sciences, agriculture and tourism. Puerto Rico’s aerospace industry accounts for more than 3,000 direct jobs and more than $100 million in private investment since 2006.

For more on this story go to: http://www.caribbeanbusinesspr.com/news/utc-aerospace-expanding-pr-operation-98924.html