Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla Guadalajara International Airport ( es, Aeropuerto Internacional de Guadalajara Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla) or simply Guadalajara International Airport ( es, Aeropuerto Internacional de Guadalajara) , is the main airport of Guadalajara, Mexico's third-largest city. Opened in 1966, it is located 16 km south of the city center. In 2020 it handled 8,094,115 passengers, and 12,243,000 in 2021. It is

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

's sixth and

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

's third-busiest airport, after Mexico City International Airport and

Cancún International Airport Cancun International Airport ( es, Aeropuerto Internacional de Cancún) is located in Cancún, Quintana Roo, on the Caribbean coast of Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula. It is Latin America's third and Mexico's second busiest airport, after Mexico C ...

, and second-busiest for cargo flights. Guadalajara's International Airport consists of two runways and one terminal. A major airport for connections, it became a hub for

Volaris Volaris, legally ''Concesionaria Vuela Compañía de Aviación S.A.P.I. de C.V.'', is a Mexican low-cost airline based in Santa Fe, Álvaro Obregón, Mexico City l-888-Ʒ9Ʒ-I394 with its hubs in Guadalajara, Mexico City, and Tijuana, and focu ...

and its primary gateway to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

. It is also a focus city for

Aeroméxico Aerovías de México, S.A. de C.V. () operating as Aeroméxico (; stylized as AM), is the flag carrier airline of Mexico, based in Mexico City. It operates scheduled services to more than 90 destinations in Mexico; North, South and Central Ame ...

and

VivaAerobus Aeroenlaces Nacionales, S.A. de C.V., trading as Viva Aerobus, is a Mexican low-cost airline fully owned by the largest bus company group in Mexico, IAMSA, and was co-founded by and invested in by Irelandia Aviation. Based in Monterrey Internati ...

. Flights are offered to destinations within Mexico and to

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

, the United States and Spain. In addition, cargo flights are offered to many destinations, including countries in

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

and

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

. The airport is named for

Miguel Hidalgo Don Miguel Gregorio Antonio Ignacio Hidalgo y Costilla y Gallaga Mandarte Villaseñor (8 May 1753 – 30 July 1811), more commonly known as Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla or Miguel Hidalgo (), was a Catholic priest, leader of the Mexican ...

, who began the war that brought Mexican independence from Spain. He has been called the "father of Mexican independence".

History

It was inaugurated on 1 March 1951 by then-president of Mexico,

Miguel Alemán Valdés Miguel Alemán Valdés (; 29 September 1900 – 14 May 1983) was a Mexican politician who served a full term as the President of Mexico from 1946 to 1952, the first civilian president after a string of revolutionary generals. His administr ...

, and the governor of the state of Jalisco, José de Jesús González Gallo. On May 24, 1993 the airport parking lot was the scene of a deadly firefight between the

Logan Heights Gang The Logan Heights Gang, also known as Varrio Logan Heights or LH, is a Sureño street gang based in Southeast San Diego. History The Logan Heights Gang was established in Southeast San Diego, when several individual Mexican-American street ga ...

working for the

Tijuana Cartel The Tijuana Cartel (Spanish: ''Cártel de Tijuana'') or Arellano-Félix-Organization (Spanish: ''Organización Arellano Félix'', AFO) is a Mexican drug cartel based in Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico. Founded by the Arellano-Félix family, the ...

and the

Sinaloa Cartel The Sinaloa Cartel ( es, link=no, Cártel de Sinaloa), also known as the CDS, the Guzmán-Loera Organization, the Pacific Cartel, the Federation and the Blood Alliance, is a large, international organized crime syndicate that specializes in il ...

. Seven people were killed including Catholic Archbishop

Juan Jesús Posadas Ocampo Juan Jesús Posadas Ocampo (11 November 1926 – 24 May 1993) was an Archbishop of the Catholic Church in Mexico who served as the eighth archbishop of the see of Guadalajara and as a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. Posadas Ocampo was ...

. In 2020, it was announced that the

Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico, S.A.B. de C.V. ("Pacific Airports Group, LLC"), known as GAP, is a Mexican airport operator headquartered in Guadalajara, Mexico. It operates 12 airports in the western states of Mexico, and 2 in Jamaica, incl ...

group have invested around $14 billion

peso The peso is the monetary unit of several countries in the Americas, and the Philippines. Originating in the Spanish Empire, the word translates to "weight". In most countries the peso uses the same sign, "$", as many currencies named "dollar" ...

s to build a new runway and terminal building, along with new facilities and improvements such as an expanded parking lot, a hotel, office block, and a solar-powered plant. Additionally, the airport aims to expand services to the

as well as

. Expected to be completed by 2024, it is part of GAP's new expansion plan for its airports in the state of Jalisco, both Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta, and its total budget is $18 billion pesos. The Guadalajara airport gained a nonstop link to Europe when

introduced flights to

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

, Spain, in December 2021.

Terminals

Passenger terminal

The Passenger Terminal or Terminal 1, is used by all airlines for international and domestic flights. The terminal has customs facilities. There are also 27 remote parking positions. It also has 12 jetways and 4 concourses: *Concourse A - Airside Walk-up gates A1 through A8 *Concourse B - Jetway gates B10 through B13 *Concourse C - Jetway gates C30 through C37 *Concourse D - Lower level, Bus gates D40 through D50

Cargo terminal

The Cargo Terminal was recently expanded and has a capacity to store approximately 350,000 tons of goods annually in its 27,000 square meters. It has 6 positions that can handle any kind of major aircraft. Aeropuerto de Guadalajara 8

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

Cargo

Amenities

Restaurants

* Burger King * California Pizza Kitchen *

Carl's Jr. Carl's Jr. Restaurants LLC is an American fast food restaurant chain operated by CKE Restaurant Holdings, Inc., with franchisees in North & South America, Asia, Oceania, Europe and Africa. In 2016, ''Entrepreneur'' listed Carl's Jr. as No. 54 ...

Chili's Chili's Grill & Bar is an American casual dining restaurant chain. The company was founded by Larry Lavine in Texas in 1975 and is currently owned and operated by Brinker International. History Chili's first location, a converted postal statio ...

* Corner Bar * De Volada Grab N' Go * El Quijote * Fronteras Bar * Guacamole Mexican Grill *

Johnny Rockets } The Johnny Rockets Group Inc. is an American restaurant franchise whose themed decor is based upon 1950s diner-style restaurants. Décor includes Coca-Cola advertising, featuring nearly life-size cardboard illustrations of women in World War ...

Krispy Kreme Krispy Kreme, Inc. (previously Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Inc.) is an American multinational doughnut company and coffeehouse chain. Krispy Kreme was founded by Vernon Rudolph (1915–1973), who bought a yeast-raised recipe from a New Orleans c ...

* La Pausa * Los Tres Amigos Tacos * Medas * Natural Break *

Sbarro Sbarro, LLC is an American pizzeria chain that specializes in New York-style pizza sold by the slice and other Italian-American cuisine. In 2011, the company was ranked 15th in foreign sales among U.S.-based quick-serve and fast-casual comp ...

* Starbucks * Subway * Wings

Car rental

* Avis
Enterprise
* Hertz
Veico Car Rental

City Car Rental

Mex Rent A Car

Hotels

* City Express Guadalajara Aeropuerto * Hampton Inn de Hilton Guadalajara-Aeropuerto
Hangar Inn

VIP Lounges

* Aeroméxico ''Salón Premier'' * Citibanamex ''Salón Beyond'' * VIP Lounge East * VIP Lounge West

Statistics

Passengers

Busiest routes

;Notes:

Local conflicts

Recently, the expansion projects are being delayed due to conflicts with the local residents. Also, several protests were made, blocking the parking lot access many times. These expansion projects include new and better access to the terminal, and it would take 3 years to build a 2nd runway (includes 2 years of land preparation and 1 to build the base and pave it). The locals argue that

has debts to the land where the airport sits on because of expropriation of land, which was taken from locals in 1975 to expand the airport. This terrain consists of the airport's polygon plus 320 hectares — of which 51 hectares will be used to build the 2nd runway.

urged the

Secretariat of Communications and Transportation The Secretariat of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation (''Secretaría de Infraestructura, Comunicaciones y Transportes'', SICT) of Mexico is the national federal entity that regulates commercial road traffic and broadcasting. Its he ...

to resolve the problems by delaying the airport's 2nd runway construction. With this new runway and the expansion of the terminal building, the airport will be able to handle over 40 million passengers. If not negotiated the next step could be another expropriation to complete the project.

Accidents and incidents

* On June 2, 1958, Aeronaves de México Flight 111, a

Lockheed L-749A Constellation The Lockheed L-749 Constellation is the first Lockheed Constellation to regularly cross the Atlantic Ocean non-stop. Although similar in appearance to the L-649 before it, the L-749 had a larger fuel capacity, strengthened landing gear, and even ...

(registration XA-MEV), crashed into La Latilla Mountain, 16 kilometers (10 miles) from the airport, shortly after takeoff for a flight to

Mexico City Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital city, capital and primate city, largest city of Mexico, and the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North Amer ...

, after the airliner's crew failed to follow the established climb-out procedure for the airport after taking off. The crash killed all 45 people on board, and two prominent American scientists –

oceanographer Oceanography (), also known as oceanology and ocean science, is the scientific study of the oceans. It is an Earth science, which covers a wide range of topics, including ecosystem dynamics; ocean currents, waves, and geophysical fluid dynamic ...

Townsend Cromwell Townsend Cromwell (November 3, 1922 – June 2, 1958) was an oceanographer who discovered the Cromwell current while researching drifting in the equatorial region of the Pacific Ocean. He died in an the airplane crash of the Aeroméxico Flight ...

and

fisheries scientist Fisheries science is the academic discipline of managing and understanding fisheries. It is a multidisciplinary science, which draws on the disciplines of limnology, oceanography, freshwater biology, marine biology, meteorology, conservation, ...

Bell M. Shimada Bell M. Shimada (January 17, 1922 - June 2, 1958) was an American fisheries scientist. He is noted for his study during the 1950s of tuna stocks in the tropical Pacific Ocean and its important effect on the development of the post- World War II ...

– were among the dead. It was the deadliest aviation accident in Mexican history at the time. *

Aeroméxico Flight 498 Aeroméxico Flight 498 was a scheduled commercial flight from Mexico City, Mexico to Los Angeles, California, United States, with several intermediate stops. On Sunday, August 31, 1986, the McDonnell Douglas DC-9 operating the flight was clipped ...

: On August 31, 1986 an

DC-9 that originated from Mexico City and stopped at Guadalajara, Loreto and Tijuana collided with a private aircraft while attempting to land at Los Angeles International Airport. * On May 24, 1993,

, the Archbishop of Guadalajara, and six other people were killed in a shootout between rival drug cartels in the airport parking lot.

References

External links

Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico

AeropuertosMexico.com (in English)
* ''FlightAware'' U.S. airport activity to/from
Don Miguel Hidalgo Y Costilla Int'l (MMGL)
* ''A-Z World Airports''

TAR Aerolineas
{{DEFAULTSORT:Don Miguel Hidalgo Y Costilla International Airport Airports in Jalisco

Airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surfa ...