The Airport of the Pacific ( es, Aeropuerto del Pacífico) is a planned joint-use civilian international airport and

military base A military base is a facility directly owned and operated by or for the military or one of its branches that shelters military equipment and personnel, and facilitates training and operations. A military base always provides accommodations for ...

which will be located in Conchagua, El Salvador, and will serve the city of La Unión. The airport was proposed by Salvadoran President

Nayib Bukele Nayib Armando Bukele Ortez (; born 24 July 1981) is a Salvadoran politician and businessman who is the 43rd president of El Salvador, serving since 1 June 2019. He is the first president since José Napoleón Duarte (1984–1989) not to have ...

during his 2019 presidential campaign as a part of his "Plan Cuscatlán" and construction was approved by the Legislative Assembly on 26 April 2022. Terraforming began in March 2023.

Planning

Initial proposals

In 2019, then Salvadoran presidential candidate

published "Plan Cuscatlán," an outline of his objectives and goals for his term as

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

of El Salvador. Within "Plan Cuscatlán," he proposed the construction of a new airport in eastern El Salvador, then referred to it as the "Airport in the East" (). Bukele cited that many of the passengers who pass through El Salvador's Saint Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez International Airport in south-central El Salvador live in eastern El Salvador, and that a new airport in the east would simultaneously ease congestion of El Salvador's main international airport and bring jobs and an economic boost to the east of the country. On 9 March 2020, the Salvadoran government began an international public offering, titled the "Pacific Airport Project," to foreign companies to study the design of the airport. In total, 44 companies in total showed interest in the project; of the 44 companies, 11 presented their economic models to the Salvadoran government. On 24 February 2022, the government was given an economic and financial report for the airport by Peyco-ALBEN 4000 Consortium, an air transportation company. The report estimated that the airport would create 4,700 new jobs in its first year of operation. The plan also estimated that within its first 10 years of operation, the airport would accommodate between 1 and 3 million passengers and around 18,000 aircraft movements. Federico Anliker, the president of the (CEPA) also estimated that the airport's construction would create over 23,700 new jobs. In March 2022, CEPA confirmed that the airport would be located in Conchagua, a municipality of the

La Unión department La Unión () is a department of El Salvador. It is located in the eastern part of the country and its capital is La Unión. It covers a total of and has a population of 263,200. The department was created on June 22, 1865, and the city of L ...

just south of the city of La Unión.

Government approval

On 25 April 2022, the Legislative Assembly's Economic Commission approved a law which would authorize the construction of the airport. On 26 April 2022, the Legislative Assembly approved the law which the Economic Commission approved the day prior, officially authorizing the construction of the airport. The law, titled the "Law for the Construction, Administration, Operation, and Maintenance of the Airport of the Pacific," was passed with 67 of the 84 votes in favor. According to the Legislative Assembly, nine locations were considered; six were eliminated due to the perceived difficulty which would face aircraft landings, and the Legislative Assembly settled on construction at the selected site to minimize its affect on the environment.

Construction

In October 2022, 10 of the 150 landowners affected by the airport's construction stated that they would not sell their land to the government. CEPA stated that they will seek to come to a settlement with the landowners, and Federico Anliker, the president of CEPA, accused them of being "manipulated" by the country's opposition political parties to oppose the airport's construction. In January 2023, Cristosal, a non-government organization, claimed that three laws regarding the airport's construction "open the door to corruption" and called upon the

Supreme Court of Justice A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

to block the laws. Terraforming for the airport began in March 2023. The airport will be in size and construction is estimated to cost

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

$500 million over 10 years. The airport's construction is opposed by the Indigenous Movement for the Integration of the Struggles of the Ancestral Peoples of El Salvador (MILPA), which claims its construction violates the people's right to private property and degrades the area's environment.

References

External links