Los Altos Airport ( es, Aeropuerto Los Altos, ), also known as Quetzaltenango Airport, serves the city of

Quetzaltenango Quetzaltenango (, also known by its Maya name Xelajú or Xela ) is both the seat of the namesake Department and municipality, in Guatemala. The city is located in a mountain valley at an elevation of above sea level at its lowest part. It m ...

, also known as "Xelajú" or "Xela," and western Guatemala. It is operated and administrated by Dirección General de Aeronáutica Civil de Guatemala (DGAC). In 2016, the airport handled 2,937 passengers.

General

Los Altos Airport is in a high elevation basin in the Guatemalan highlands, in the northeastern part of the city of Quetzaltenango. There is a mountain ridge north of the runway, and distant mountainous terrain in all other quadrants.

History

The first airport was built in 1945 at La Esperanza and was transferred to the present site in 1955.

Aviateca Aviateca S.A. branded Avianca Guatemala is a regional airline headquartered in Guatemala City. Aviateca was under government ownership and remained so until 1989 when it joined the Grupo TACA alliance of Central America and was privatized. It ...

had daily flights between Xela and

Guatemala City Guatemala City ( es, Ciudad de Guatemala), known locally as Guatemala or Guate, is the capital and largest city of Guatemala, and the most populous urban area in Central America. The city is located in the south-central part of the country, ne ...

, charging 25 Quetzal those days. The airport has undergone construction work as part of a nationwide airport rehabilitation program. Serving Guatemala's second largest city, the airport aims to gain international status, along with

La Aurora International Airport La Aurora International Airport ( es, Aeropuerto Internacional La Aurora, ) serves Guatemala City, Guatemala. It is located south of Guatemala City's center and from Antigua Guatemala. It is administered by the Dirección General de Aeronáut ...

and

Mundo Maya International Airport Mundo Maya International Airport ( es, Aeropuerto Internacional Mundo Maya, ), formerly Flores International Airport as indicated by its 3-letter code, is an international airport located in the suburb of Santa Elena, in the city of Flores, ...

. The region hopes to profit economically from this new airport. So far, the closest airport to Quetzaltenango with regular airline connections was away in Guatemala City. Until 2006, the airfield had only a grass runway. It had no significant terminal building and only a small hangar. Air traffic was limited due to lack of features for safe operation. In September 2006 construction work began, which included: extension, asphalting, signposting, and illuminating of the

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, concre ...

and

taxiway A taxiway is a path for aircraft at an airport connecting runways with aprons, hangars, terminals and other facilities. They mostly have a hard surface such as asphalt or concrete, although smaller general aviation airports sometimes use gravel ...

, construction of a small terminal building and apron for four aircraft, and construction of a parking area. An emergency operations center has been installed at the airport in order to respond to future disasters like

hurricane Stan Hurricane Stan was a relatively weak but deadly tropical cyclone that affected areas of Central America and Mexico in early October 2005. The eighteenth named storm and eleventh hurricane of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, Stan formed from ...

. The new runway was inaugurated by President

Óscar Berger Óscar José Rafael Berger Perdomo (; born 11 August 1946) is a Guatemalan politician who served as the President of Guatemala from 2004 to 2008. Early years and family Berger was born to an upper-class family with large sugar and coffee hol ...

on January 10, 2008. However, there were criticisms. It was discovered that when Óscar Berger inaugurated the runway in January 2008, construction work had not finished. The temporary runway markings were for the official opening ceremony and had to be removed for final coating. The terminal building was revealed to be only a small house, not a terminal building of international standards as anticipated . The tower has not been built, hence safe operations were questionable.

Quetzaltenango 1

In 1992 Miguel Angel Castro Conde father and son constructed a two-seater aircraft in Quetzaltenango, finishing it in 2003 and naming it "Quetzaltenango 1". It is said that it is the first and only ever built airplane in

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. ...

. On May 12, 2003 the first flight occurred lasting 30 minutes, followed by further testing.

Airlines and destinations

Statistics

Accidents

On 1 November 1998 a Douglas DC-3 (N3FY) carrying 18 crew and passengers crashed near the airport into mountainous terrain. Bad weather during approach is the probable cause. There were 11 fatalities. On 13 October 1999 a private Bell 206

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

(TG-AMA) crashed near Quetzaltenango. Both occupants were killed.FTW00RA156
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References

External links

Dirección General de Aeronáutica Civil

SkyVector - Quetzaltenango Airport
* * {{authority control Airports in Guatemala Quetzaltenango Department Quetzaltenango