Washington airport seeks to promote work with Latino immigrants

Young Joseph Souza comes from a Peruvian family living in the Washington area and is proud to be part of the more than 26,000 workers who work at Dulles International Airport, that these days celebrates the Hispanic Heritage Month in the US promoting its expansion plans, in which it seeks to attract more workers and expand businesses with Latin entrepreneurs.

Souza started working with the Washington Metropolitan Airports Authority after finishing university three years ago and part of his responsibility is to recruit personnel and publicize the opportunities that this activity offers in the area near the US capital.

“There are a lot of jobs here, and some that I can mention are plumbers, electricians, mechanics, human resources; We also have jobs in airport operations, logistics, engineers, lawyers; We have a little bit of everything and it’s because it’s like a small city; We also have firefighters and police officers,” he explained to the Voice of America during a tour of Dulles International Airport.

Opportunities for doing business are also open where Latino entrepreneurs with registered companies can compete in public tenders that open every week, he also told the VOA Felipe Domínguez, contracts manager at both Dulles and Ronald Reagan National Airport.

Domínguez added that given the size of the two airports that connect Latin America and the world with the US capital, the volume of contracts and services is large.

“These are very large airports that need many services to maintain all areas, clean the airport, we need guards, buy vehicles. There are many needs,” said the manager, in charge of supervising hiring.

He insisted that needs are increasing due to expansion projects at Dulles, which will demand many more services in a new modernized terminal, another niche where immigrants with technological projects will be able to compete.

For now, most service contracts with Hispanic businesses focus on basic services such as cleaning and maintenance, but the idea is to advance to another level, warned Domínguez.

The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) operates as an autonomous entity and operates alongside the Department of Transportation. Both Dulles International Airport and Ronald Reagan National Airport are owned by the US government, which transferred them in an 80-year contract to the MWAA, which will end in 2067.

Thousands of jobs and millions of passengers

MWAA board director Walter Tejada told the VOA that the Hispanic community in the Washington region should learn more about Dulles Airport because the opportunities to do business and obtain employment there are increasing.

The figures – explains Tejada – give an idea of ​​the size of the operations at Dulles, which injects some 25 billion dollars each year into the capital’s economy, registers millions of travelers and some 187,000 jobs related to airport activity.

Door to Latin America

Airlines have also seen exponential growth in passenger demand on direct flights to Latin America.

Alexis Guini, sales manager for the southeastern United States at the Panamanian airline Copa Airlines, told the VOA that in 2023 alone they transported more than a quarter of a million passengers on the 18 weekly direct flights to Panama City.

“This was the fifth airport to which COPA began flying to the United States, 17 years ago, it is of great importance because it is the capital of the United States, both commercial, governmental and cultural, so it is a very important airport (…) For By the end of 2025 we hope to have a fleet of 120 aircraft and we hope to increase frequencies to this airport,” said Guini from the Dulles runway.

Other airlines such as the Colombian Avianca also have a good part of the trips to the region insured, explained during an informative panel Arístides Luna, the company’s operations manager in Washington.

Luna explained that the airline operates direct flights to El Salvador and Bogotá with multiple connections to Washington, as one of the privileged destinations.

In general, Dulles International Airport operates between 1,800 and 2,000 flights a day, according to figures from the Airports Authority. Last year it remained in 26th position in terms of air traffic in the US.

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