Antoine de Saint Exupéry Airport (Spanish: ''Aeropuerto Antoine de Saint Exupéry'', ) is an airport serving

San Antonio Oeste San Antonio Oeste is a port city in the Argentine province of Río Negro, and head of the department of San Antonio. The town is bordered by its sister communities of San Antonio Este, to the east, and Las Grutas, to the southwest. Discovered ...

, a city in the

Río Negro Province Río Negro (, ''Black River'') is a province of Argentina, located in northern Patagonia. Neighboring provinces are from the south clockwise Chubut, Neuquén, Mendoza, La Pampa and Buenos Aires. To the east lies the Atlantic Ocean. Its cap ...

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

. The airport is named after the French author-aviator

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger, vicomte de Saint-Exupéry (29 June 1900 – 31 July 1944), known simply as Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (, , ), was a French writer, poet, journalist and aviator. Born in Lyon to an French nobility, aristocratic ...

Facilities

The terminal building is very similar in architectural design to others in the

Patagonia Patagonia () is a geographical region that includes parts of Argentina and Chile at the southern end of South America. The region includes the southern section of the Andes mountain chain with lakes, fjords, temperate rainforests, and glaciers ...

n region, basically of a simple, plain design with appropriately sized common areas, which provides an acceptable level of service for the area's normal traffic. However the terminal building also features a mural by

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

an artist

Carlos Páez Vilaró Carlos Páez Vilaró (1 November 1923 – 24 February 2014) was a Uruguayan abstract artist, painter, potter, sculptor, muralist, writer, composer and constructor. He took an active role in the search for survivors of the 1972 crash of Uruguayan ...

in its main hall, painted in December 1989.Visiting Antoine de Saint Exupéry Airport
Aeropuertos Argentinos website. The airport is inland from the

San Matías Gulf The San Matias Gulf is an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Patagonia, Argentina. It is bordered by the Río Negro Province to the north and west, and the Valdes Peninsula of the Chubut Province to the south. It is "one of the largest g ...

. Southeast approach and departure may be over the water. The runway has greater than unpaved overruns on each end. The San Antonio Oeste

non-directional beacon A non-directional beacon (NDB) or non-directional radio beacon is a radio beacon which does not include directional information. Radio beacons are radio transmitters at a known location, used as an aviation or marine navigational aid. NDB are i ...

(Ident: SAN) is located on the field.

History

San Antonio Oeste's airport was renamed after the French writer-aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, who frequently surveyed routes in the country as the director of Aeroposta Argentina, the company that created a stopover airport at that location en route to

Comodoro Rivadavia Comodoro Rivadavia (), often shortened to Comodoro ( ), is a city in the Patagonian Provinces of Argentina, province of Chubut Province, Chubut in southern Argentina, located on the San Jorge Gulf, an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean, at the foot of th ...

. A small museum exhibit was created in the airport's terminal building honoring its origins. It came into being on October 31, 1929, when a flight route began between Comodoro Rivadavia and

Bahia Blanca Bahia () is one of the 26 Federative units of Brazil, states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region of the country. It is the fourth-largest Brazilian state by population (after São Paulo (state), São Paulo, Mina ...

, with stops at San Antonio Oeste and

Trelew Trelew (, from "town" and the name of the founder, Lewis Jones) is a city in the eastern part of the Chubut Province of Argentina, 21km away from the coast. Located in Patagonia, the city is the largest and most populous in the low valley of the ...

. The following day Aeroposta Argentina inaugurated its regular service to the airport. Due to a lack of facility, runway, and airport maintenance for over 20 years, commercial air services were discontinued to the airport in 2009. Currently only the local flying club and some private flights use the facility. Simulacro en un aeropuerto que casi no funciona
, Rionegro.com.ar, August 10, 2011

References

External links

OpenStreetMap - Antoine de Saint Exupéry Airport
* * Airports in Río Negro Province Antoine de Saint-Exupéry {{Argentina-airport-stub

Facilities

History

See also

References

External links