Culiacán International Airport, (); officially ''Aeropuerto Internacional Federal de Bachigualato'' (Bachigualato Federal International Airport) (), is an international airport located in

Culiacán Culiacán, officially Culiacán Rosales, is a city in northwestern Mexico, the capital and largest city of both Culiacán Municipality and the state of Sinaloa. The city was founded on 29 September 1531 by the Spanish conquistadors Lázaro de ...

Sinaloa Sinaloa (), officially the (), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, compose the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 18 municipalities, and its capital city is Culiacán Rosales. It is located in northwest Mexic ...

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 as the primary air traffic gateway to the Culiacán metropolitan area, offering nonstop flights to many cities in Mexico and serving as a gateway in a heavily traveled air corridor connecting mainland Mexico to the Baja California peninsula. It is also a focus city for

Volaris Volaris (legally ''Concesionaria Vuela Compañía de Aviación S.A.B. de C.V.'') is a Mexican low-cost airline based in Santa Fe, Mexico City, Santa Fe, Álvaro Obregón, Mexico City, Álvaro Obregón, Mexico City with its operating bases in Canc ...

. The airport accommodates military facilities for the

Mexican Army The Mexican Army () is the combined Army, land and Air Force, air branch and is the largest part of the Mexican Armed Forces; it is also known as the National Defense Army. The Army is under the authority of the Secretariat of National Defense o ...

and supports various tourism, flight training, and general aviation activities. It is operated by

Grupo Aeroportuario Centro Norte Grupo Aeroportuario Centro Norte, S.A.B. de C.V., known as OMA, is a Mexican airport operator headquartered in San Pedro, near Monterrey, Mexico. It operates 13 airports in the central and northern states of Mexico, including that of Monterrey, ...

and takes its name from the neighborhood of Bachigualato, where it is situated. Culiacán Airport ranks as the eleventh-busiest in Mexico and is the third-largest in northwestern Mexico. It is also the busiest for domestic traffic and the second-busiest for international operations in the state of Sinaloa. In 2024, Culiacán Airport served 2,240,034 passengers, a 14.25% decrease from the previous year.

Facilities

Culiacán Airport is situated in the Bachigualato neighborhood, located southwest of the city center of Culiacán. It 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

mean sea level A mean is a quantity representing the "center" of a collection of numbers and is intermediate to the extreme values of the set of numbers. There are several kinds of means (or "measures of central tendency") in mathematics, especially in statist ...

and features a long

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, ...

. The airport features two

aprons An apron is a garment worn over other clothing to cover the front of the body to protect from liquids. They have several purposes, most commonly as a functional accessory that protects clothes and skin from stains and marks. However, other typ ...

with parking positions for up to 10

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 ...

commercial aircraft, as well as a separate apron dedicated to

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 ...

. It has a capacity for 22 operations per hour. Under favorable weather conditions, flights arriving from the Baja California Peninsula and northern regions use Runway 02, while those arriving from other parts of the country use Runway 20. The main terminal serves essential functions, with

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 ...

and baggage handling facilities on the eastern side, and the arrivals section on the west side, which includes customs and immigration facilities. The arrivals section also provides services such as car rental, taxi stands, snack bars, and souvenir shops. The upper floor of the terminal houses the security checkpoint and a departure section that hosts a food court, duty-free shops, a VIP lounge, and a concourse featuring five gates, three of which are equipped with

jet bridges A jet bridge is an enclosed connector which most commonly extends from an airport terminal gate to an airplane, and in some instances from a port to a boat or ship, allowing passengers to board and disembark without heading outside and being exp ...

. Adjacent to the terminal, there are other facilities, including 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 ...

cargo In transportation, cargo refers to goods transported by land, water or air, while freight refers to its conveyance. In economics, freight refers to goods transported at a freight rate for commercial gain. The term cargo is also used in cas ...

and logistics companies, and courier services. Additionally, there is a dedicated general aviation terminal that supports a variety of activities, including tourism, flight training, executive aviation, and general aviation. Hpim2154kn4

In 2023,

announced a major renovation project for Culiacán International Airport. This project is expected to be completed within 5 years and aims to accommodate an estimated 5 million passengers. The renovation plan includes expanding waiting areas, adding additional gates, and completely revamping the terminal area. The total investment for this project is set at a minimum of 636 million Mexican pesos.

Air Force Base An airbase (stylised air base in American English), sometimes referred to as a military airbase, military airfield, military airport, air station, naval air station, air force station, or air force base, is an aerodrome or airport used as a mi ...

No. 10 () (B.A.M 10) is situated at the southern end of the airport grounds. This base houses Air Squadron 109, which operates

Cessna 182 The Cessna 182 Skylane is an American four-seat, single-engined light airplane built by Cessna of Wichita, Kansas. It has the option of adding two child seats in the baggage area. Introduced in 1956, the 182 has been produced in a ...

aircraft, and it features two aviation aprons. One of these aprons covers an area of , while the other spans , offering 30 parking positions for

helicopters 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 attribu ...

and small airplanes. The larger apron is primarily utilized as a maintenance center for single-engine Cessna aircraft and

Bell helicopters Bell Textron Inc. is an American aerospace manufacturer headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas. A subsidiary of Textron, Bell manufactures military rotorcraft at facilities in Fort Worth, and Amarillo, Texas, United States as well as commercial heli ...

. Additionally, the Air Base includes five hangars and other facilities to accommodate Air Force personnel.

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

Cargo

Destinations map

Statistics

Passengers

Busiest routes

Accidents and incidents

* On July 5, 2007, a twin-engine

Sabreliner The North American Sabreliner, later sold as the Rockwell Sabreliner, is an American mid-sized business jet developed by North American Aviation. It was offered to the United States Air Force (USAF) in response to its Utility Trainer Experimen ...

cargo jet failed to take off from the airport due to a loss of control resulting from a tire blowout and slid off the runway onto a highway. Three people died on board the plane and six on the ground; five more were injured. *On April 24, 2012, a

registered XBMPN for private use crashed in the airport a few seconds after it took off. The plane was heading to Chihuahua Airport, and at the time of the crash it carried only the pilot, who sustained minor injuries. The aircraft remained in some trees at the end of the runway, still on airport property. *On January 5, 2023, an Aeromexico

Embraer E190 The Embraer E-Jet family is a series of four-abreast, narrow-body, short- to medium-range, twin-engined jet airliners designed and produced by Brazilian aerospace manufacturer Embraer. The E-Jet was designed to complement Embraer’s earlier ...

operating a passenger flight to

Mexico City International Airport Mexico City International Airport (); officially ''Aeropuerto Internacional Benito Juárez'' (Benito Juárez International Airport) is the primary international airport serving Greater Mexico City. It is the List of the busiest airports in Me ...

was hit by gunfire from members of a drug cartel. There were no injuries amongst the passengers or crew on board. A Mexican Air Force 737-800 was also shot at.

References

Aviation Safety Network The Flight Safety Foundation (FSF) is a non-profit, international organization concerning research, education, advocacy, and communications in the field of aviation safety. FSF brings together aviation professionals to help solve safety problems ...

{{authority control Airports in Sinaloa Culiacán Airports in Mexico Transportation in Sinaloa Tourist attractions in Sinaloa Mexican Air Force bases Mexican Air Force Military installations of Mexico