Villahermosa International Airport (); officially known as ''Aeropuerto Internacional Carlos Rovirosa Pérez'' (Carlos Rovirosa Pérez International Airport) is an international airport located in

Villahermosa Villahermosa ( , ; "Beautiful Town") is the capital and largest city of the Mexican state of Tabasco, and serves as the municipal seat (governing county) of the state. Located in Southeast Mexico, Villahermosa is an important city because of its ...

Tabasco Tabasco, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tabasco, is one of the Political divisions of Mexico, 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into Municipalities of Tabasco, 17 municipalities and its capital city is Villahermosa. It i ...

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

. It serves the Metropolitan Area of Villahermosa, the entire State of Tabasco, and Northern

Chiapas Chiapas, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Chiapas, is one of the states that make up the Political divisions of Mexico, 32 federal entities of Mexico. It comprises Municipalities of Chiapas, 124 municipalities and its capital and large ...

. The airport offers domestic flights within Mexico and supports various tourism, flight training, and general aviation activities. It is named in honor of Carlos Rovirosa Pérez, a pioneer of Mexican aviation, who was born in Villahermosa. The airport is operated by Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste (ASUR). In 2023, the airport handled 1,396,653 passengers, and in 2024, it served 1,481,067 passengers, an increase of 6.0% according to ASUR.

History

By 1935, the city of Villahermosa had three airfields: José Suárez Airfield (located in the current ''España'' neighborhood), ''El Playón'' Airfield (located in the city center), and Roberto Fierro Airfield (located in the area now known as ''Tabasco 2000''). The Roberto Fierro Airfield received the inaugural cargo transportation flight of Compañía Mexicana de Aviación in 1928. It also welcomed the first passenger flight, which was conducted by a Ford brand trimotor monoplane from Mexicana de Aviación in 1929. As the city expanded in the late 1970s, a new airport was constructed in the Dos Montes community on the outskirts of the city. The current airport was inaugurated on May 2, 1979. Over the years, it has been served by various Mexican airlines, including

Aeromar Transportes Aeromar, S.A. de C.V, doing business as Aeromar, was a Mexican airline that operated scheduled domestic services in Mexico and international services to the United States, and Cuba. Its main base was Mexico City International Airport ...

Aero California Aero California (at times shortened as ''AeroCal'') was a low-cost airline with its headquarters in La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico, operating a network of domestic passenger flights with its airline hub, hub at the city's Manuel Márquez d ...

, Aerocaribe,

Aviacsa Consorcio Aviaxsa, S.A. de C.V., doing business as Aviacsa, was a low-cost airline of Mexico, founded in 1990. The airline operated domestic services until the airline's grounding in 2011, radiating from major hubs at Monterrey, Mexico City, and ...

Interjet InterJet was a private jet charter operator in the Greek business aviation market. InterJet was based in Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal ...

, and Mexicana. It has also offered international services to

Panama City Panama City, also known as Panama, is the capital and largest city of Panama. It has a total population of 1,086,990, with over 2,100,000 in its metropolitan area. The city is located at the Pacific Ocean, Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal, i ...

through

Copa Airlines Compañía Panameña de Aviación, S.A., branded as Copa Airlines, is the flag carrier of Panama. It is headquartered in Panama City, Panama, with its main hub at Tocumen International Airport. Copa is a subsidiary of Copa Holdings and a member o ...

and to

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

through

Continental Express Continental Express was the brand name used by a number of independently owned regional airlines providing commuter airliner and regional jet feeder service under agreement with Continental Airlines. In 2010 at the time of Continental's merger ...

, Aeromexico Connect, and

United Express United Express is a regional airline network that supports United Airlines operations, primarily by serving smaller cities and connecting traffic to United's main hubs. Representing six percent of United's total capacity for 2024, United Express ...

, primarily catering to the oil industry market. The passenger terminal underwent expansion in 2006 and was further expanded in 2013. Currently, Villahermosa Airport serves as the nearest active commercial airport to the popular tourist destination of the ancient Maya ruins in Palenque in

Facilities

The airport is situated at an

elevation The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''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 equipotenti ...

of above sea level and it features a single

runway In aviation, a runway is an elongated, rectangular surface designed for the landing and takeoff of an aircraft. Runways may be a human-made surface (often asphalt concrete, asphalt, concrete, or a mixture of both) or a natural surface (sod, ...

, designated as 08/26, which measures in length and has an

asphalt Asphalt most often refers to: * Bitumen, also known as "liquid asphalt cement" or simply "asphalt", a viscous form of petroleum mainly used as a binder in asphalt concrete * Asphalt concrete, a mixture of bitumen with coarse and fine aggregates, u ...

surface. The commercial aviation apron has nine stands, with six being of type C and two of type D, primarily for

narrow-body A narrow-body aircraft or single-aisle aircraft is an airliner arranged along a single aisle, permitting up to 6-abreast airline seat, seating in a aircraft cabin, cabin less than in width. In contrast, a wide-body aircraft is a larger airliner ...

aircraft. The

general aviation General aviation (GA) is defined by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) as all civil aviation aircraft operations except for commercial air transport or aerial work, which is defined as specialized aviation services for other ...

apron offers stands for fixed-wing aircraft and

heliports A heliport is a small airport which has a helipad, suitable for use by helicopters, Powered lift, powered lift, and various types of VTOL, vertical lift aircraft. Designated heliports typically contain one or more touchdown and liftoff area ...

for private aviation. The airport can handle up to 20 operations per hour. The passenger terminal is a two-story building with a total area of . The lower level houses the

check-in Check-in is the process whereby people announce their arrival at an office, hotel, airport, hospital, port, seaport or event. Office check-in Many offices have a reception or front office area near the entrance to greet or assist visitors arriv ...

area, an arrivals hall with two

baggage claim 200px, Baggage carousel In airport terminals, a baggage reclaim area is an area where arriving passengers claim checked-in baggage after disembarking from an airline flight. The alternative term baggage claim is used at airports in the US and ...

carousels, immigration and

customs Customs is an authority or Government agency, agency in a country responsible for collecting tariffs and for controlling International trade, the flow of goods, including animals, transports, personal effects, and hazardous items, into and out ...

facilities, car rental services, taxi stands, snack bars, a souvenir shop, and a restaurant. The upper floor hosts the security zone and the departure concourse with a commercial area, restaurants, bars, a VIP lounge, and five gates, four of which have jetbridges. The general airport offices are also located on this level. Adjacent to the terminal, other facilities include civil aviation

hangars A hangar is a building or structure designed to hold aircraft or spacecraft. Hangars are built of metal, wood, or concrete. The word ''hangar'' comes from Middle French ''hanghart'' ("enclosure near a house"), of Germanic origin, from Frankish ...

and designated spaces for general aviation. VSA-Terminal