Eugenio María de Hostos Airport is a public use airport north of Mayagüez, a coastal city in

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and unincorporated ...

. The airport is named after Mayagüez native Eugenio Maria de Hostos. It offers limited, domestic commercial service, subsidized by the

Essential Air Service Essential Air Service (EAS) is a U.S. government program enacted to guarantee that small communities in the United States, which had been served by certificated airlines prior to deregulation in 1978, maintained commercial service. Its aim is t ...

program.

History

Eugenio María de Hostos Airport used to be the main air gateway to the western region of

, until Rafael Hernández Airport in

Aguadilla Aguadilla (, ), founded in 1775 by Luis de Córdova, is a city and municipality located in the northwestern tip of Puerto Rico, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, north of Aguada, and Moca and west of Isabela. Aguadilla i ...

took over that position. The airport was served during the 1960s from San Juan by Caribair, and then, rather heavily, by the Puerto Rican national

air carrier An airline is a company that provides air transport services for traveling passengers and freight. Airlines use aircraft to supply these services and may form partnerships or alliances with other airlines for codeshare agreements, in which ...

Prinair Prinair is a Puerto Rican charter operator airline. It was Puerto Rico's domestic and international flag carrier airline for almost two decades from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s. Despite previously ceasing scheduled commercial operations twice ...

, during the 1970s and early 1980s. It took the airport three years to get commercial service again after Prinair went bankrupt in 1984. American Eagle opened service from

Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport ( es, link=no, Aeropuerto Internacional Luis Muñoz Marín) is a joint civil-military international airport located in suburban Carolina, Puerto Rico, southeast of San Juan. It is named for Luis Muñoz ...

in 1987, and

Eastern Air Lines Eastern Air Lines, also colloquially known as Eastern, was a major United States airline from 1926 to 1991. Before its dissolution, it was headquartered at Miami International Airport in an unincorporated area of Miami-Dade County, Florida. E ...

, not to be outdone by their rival American's feeder carrier, soon began services there too, with their own feeder airline, Eastern Metro Express. Although the airport has always been a turbo-prop aircraft airport,

Pan Am Pan American World Airways, originally founded as Pan American Airways and commonly known as Pan Am, was an American airline that was the principal and largest international air carrier and unofficial overseas flag carrier of the United State ...

announced, in 2002, intentions to install jet flights between Mayagüez and Las Américas International Airport in

Santo Domingo , total_type = Total , population_density_km2 = auto , timezone = AST (UTC −4) , area_code_type = Area codes , area_code = 809, 829, 849 , postal_code_type = Postal codes , postal_code = 10100–10699 ( Distrito Nacional) , webs ...

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic ( ; es, República Dominicana, ) is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean region. It occupies the eastern five-eighths of the island, which it shares with ...

, with

Boeing 727 The Boeing 727 is an American narrow-body airliner that was developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. After the heavy 707 quad-jet was introduced in 1958, Boeing addressed the demand for shorter flight lengths from smaller air ...

s. Those plans never became a reality, but in 2003, the airport gained international status, when Fina Air picked up the route to Santo Domingo. Fina Air has since gone out of business. On November 8, 2004, American Eagle filed a 90-day notice of intent to the DOT to end service to Mayagüez on February 5, 2005 due to poor loads. MAZ is an

market therefore American Eagle's service was extended by the DOT until the newly selected carrier,

Cape Air Hyannis Air Service Inc., operating as Cape Air, is an airline headquartered at Barnstable Municipal Airport in Hyannis, Massachusetts, United States. It operates scheduled passenger services in the Northeast, the Caribbean, Midwest, and Eas ...

, began operations. American Eagle ended operations on April 30, 2005. Cape Air at TJMZ

Facilities and aircraft

Eugenio María de Hostos Airport covers an area of 172

acre The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial and US customary systems. It is traditionally defined as the area of one chain by one furlong (66 by 660 feet), which is exactly equal to 10 square chains, of a square mile, 4,840 square ...

s (70 ha) at an

elevation The elevation of a geographic location is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational surface (see Geodetic datum § ...

of 28 feet (9 m) above

mean sea level There are several kinds of mean in mathematics, especially in statistics. Each mean serves to summarize a given group of data, often to better understand the overall value ( magnitude and sign) of a given data set. For a data set, the '' ...

. It has one

runway According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a runway is a "defined rectangular area on a land aerodrome prepared for the landing and takeoff of aircraft". Runways may be a man-made surface (often asphalt, concrete ...

designated 9/27 with an

asphalt Asphalt, also known as bitumen (, ), is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term ...

surface measuring 4,998 by 100 feet (1,523 x 30 m).

Airline and destination

Accidents and incidents

* American Eagle Flight 5452 crashed while landing on May 8, 1987, killing two and damaging the airport perimeter fence. * On June 7, 1992, American Eagle Flight 5456, a

CASA C-212 The CASA C-212 Aviocar is a turboprop-powered STOL medium cargo aircraft designed and built by the Spanish aircraft manufacturer Construcciones Aeronáuticas SA (CASA). It is designed for use by both civil and military operators. The C-212 ...

aircraft from San Juan crashed one mile short of runway 9, killing all five people on board. * A 24-year-old pilot, Jose O. Torres Lopez, sustained an eye injury when his Piper Cub aircraft, carrying him and one passenger, was overthrown by wind after landing at the airport on Saturday, March 1, 2014. The airplane was also damaged.

References

* Essential Air Service documents
Docket OST-2004-19622
from the U.S. Department of Transportation: *
90-Day Notice (November 5, 2005)
of Executive Airlines, Inc. d/b/a American Eagle of intent to terminate service at Mayaguez, P.R. *
Order 2004-12-19 (January 4, 2005)
requests proposals for providing essential air service at Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, and/or Ponce, Puerto Rico, with or without subsidy requirements; prohibits Executive Airlines from suspending service at Mayaguez, at the end of its 90-day notice period and requires it to maintain 14 nonstop round trips a week between Mayaguez and San Juan, through March 7, 2005, or until a carrier capable of providing reliable essential air service actually begins service, whichever occurs first. *
Order 2005-3-2 (March 7, 2005)
selecting Hyannis Air Service, Inc., d/b/a Cape Air to provide essential air service (EAS) at Mayaguez and Ponce, Puerto Rico, for the two-year period through April 30, 2007; establishing an annual subsidy rate of $688,551, beginning when the carrier inaugurates service at Mayaguez; and establishing an annual subsidy rate of $622,056 for service at Ponce, retroactive to January 1, 2005. *
Order 2007-4-18 (April 20, 2007)
selecting Hyannis Air Service, Inc., d/b/a Cape Air to provide essential air service (EAS) at Mayaguez and Ponce, Puerto Rico, for the two-year period through April 30, 2007; establishing an annual subsidy rate of $688,551, beginning when the carrier inaugurates service at Mayaguez; and establishing an annual subsidy rate of $622,056 for service at Ponce, retroactive to January 1, 2005. *
Order 2009-3-1 (March 3, 2009)
re-selecting Hyannis Air Service, Inc., d/b/a Cape Air, to continue to provide subsidized essential air service (EAS) at Mayaguez and Ponce, Puerto Rico, for the two-year period beginning May 1, 2009, at the annual subsidy rates of $980,980 for Mayaguez and $740,416 for Ponce. *
Order 2011-3-28 (March 22, 2011)
re-selecting Hyannis Air Service Inc., operating as Cape Air, to provide essential air service (EAS) using 9-seat

Cessna 402 The Cessna 401 and 402 are a series of 6 to 10 seat, light twin-piston engine aircraft. This line was manufactured by Cessna from 1966 to 1985 under the name Utiliner and Businessliner.Montgomery, MR & Gerald Foster: ''A Field Guide to Airplane ...

aircraft at Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, for the five-year period beginning May 1, 2011, through April 30, 2016, for an annual subsidy of $1,198,824.

External links

SkyVector - Eugenio Maria De Hostos Airport
* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Eugenio Maria De Hostos Airport Buildings and structures in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico Airports in Puerto Rico Essential Air Service