Airports
Against All Odds, San Juan’s FBOs Shine
Facing power and water outages, the service providers at the two airports met the urgent crisis head-on.
As it did in the wake of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, business aviation stepped in immediately in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.
As it did in the wake of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, business aviation stepped in immediately in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.

Category 5 Hurricane Irma affected much of the Caribbean in the first half of September, but Puerto Rico escaped the worst of the 150 mph-plus winds. While neighbors in St. Maarten, St. Thomas, Barbuda and Anguilla suffered massive destruction, the U.S. territory became a hub of relief and humanitarian efforts, exporting supplies to those less fortunate. But a week later the entire island found itself in the same situation, if not worse, from Hurricane Maria, which made a direct impact on September 20.

A Category 4 storm at the time of impact, it wiped out the island’s aging power grid, leaving 3.4 million inhabitants in the dark, and without electricity to power water pumps, most were left without running water. Also hit hard was the Commonwealth’s telecommunication system, with virtually every cellphone transmission tower smashed.