Alfredo Vásquez Cobo International Airport (, ) is an

international airport An international airport is an airport with customs and border control facilities enabling passengers to travel between countries. International airports are usually larger than domestic airports, and feature longer runways and have faciliti ...

located in Leticia, Colombia's southernmost city and capital of the Amazonas Department. The airport is important for the

Amazon region The Amazon basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries. The Amazon drainage basin covers an area of about , or about 35.5 percent of the South American continent. It is located in the countries of Bolivi ...

, as it is the main gateway to the rest of the country and serves the tri-border area between Colombia, Brazil and Peru.

History

Before Leticia had an established airport, the Colombian Air Force flew

PBY Catalina The Consolidated Model 28, more commonly known as the PBY Catalina (U.S. Navy designation), is a flying boat and amphibious aircraft designed by Consolidated Aircraft in the 1930s and 1940s. In U.S. Army service, it was designated as the O ...

aircraft from the interior of Colombia to the river banks of the city.

Gustavo Rojas Pinilla Gustavo Rojas Pinilla (12 March 1900 – 17 January 1975) was a Colombian National Army of Colombia, army general, civil engineer and politician who ruled as List of presidents of Colombia, 19th President of Colombia in a military dictatorship f ...

seeing the need to better connect the Amazon region of Colombia to Bogota ordered for an airport to be built. In 2015,

Juan Manuel Santos Juan Manuel Santos Calderón (; born 10 August 1951) is a Colombian politician who was the President of Colombia from 2010 to 2018. He was the sole recipient of the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize. An economist by training and a journalist by trade, S ...

, the then president of Colombia, announced an investment of over $142 billion Colombian pesos (or $42 million US dollars) to replace the existing facilities with brand new passenger and cargo terminals, control tower, parking and common areas, and access roadways. Construction was expected to conclude on November 30, 2018, however due to delays the new facilities are expected to be completed by June 2019. Two hundred international tourists were trapped in Leticia after the highly-contagious Brazilian variant of COVID-19 virus was discovered in the city on January 28, 2021. Two weeks later the government agreed to fly the tourists out of the Alfredo Vásquez Cobo airport if the individuals were willing to pay. Regularly scheduled flights resumed on March 2.

Airlines and destinations

Statistics

Colonel Herbert Boy Air Base

Permanently stationed onsite is the ''Amazonas Air Group'', of the

Colombian Air Force The Colombian Aerospace Force (FAC, ) is the air force of the Republic of Colombia. The Colombian Aerospace Force is one of the three institutions of the Military Forces of Colombia charged, according to the 1991 Constitution, with working to exe ...

, which operates out of the ''Colonel Herbert Boy Air Base''. The air base shares the same runway with the airport and jointly manage other facilities.

Accidents

* On November 18, 2006, an AeroSucre

Boeing 727 The Boeing 727 is an American Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body airliner that was developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. After the heavier Boeing 707, 707 quad-jet was introduced in 1958, Boeing addressed the demand for shorter ...

crashed during landing due to poor weather and fog against a television antenna with 40 meters of height. The three members of crew, as well as the three passengers, died in the accident.

References

External links

*
Leticia Airport
at

OpenStreetMap OpenStreetMap (abbreviated OSM) is a free, Open Database License, open geographic database, map database updated and maintained by a community of volunteers via open collaboration. Contributors collect data from surveying, surveys, trace from Ae ...

Leticia Airport
at OurAirports * * Airports in Colombia Buildings and structures in Amazonas (Colombian department) {{Colombia-airport-stub