Ramón Villeda Morales International Airport () , also known as La Mesa International Airport, is located southeast of the city of

San Pedro Sula San Pedro Sula () is the capital of Cortés Department, Honduras. It is located in the northwest corner of the country in the Sula Valley, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) south of Puerto Cortés on the Caribbean Sea. With a population of 701, ...

, in the

Cortés Department Cortes, Cortés, Cortês, Corts, or Cortès may refer to: People * Cortes (surname), including a list of people with the name ** Hernán Cortés (1485–1547), a Spanish conquistador Places * Cortes, Navarre, a village in the South border of ...

of Honduras. The airport is named after

Ramón Villeda Morales José Ramón Adolfo "el Pajarito" Villeda Morales (November 26, 1909 – October 8, 1971) served as President of Honduras from 1957 to 1963. Biography Trained as a physician, his specialty was pediatrics. Villeda Morales was a liberal ...

(1909–1971), who served as

President of Honduras The president of Honduras (), officially known as the President of the Republic of Honduras (), is the head of state and head of government of Honduras, and the Commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces. According to the 1982 Constitution of H ...

from 1957 to 1963. It is the major and busiest airport in Honduras, handling 1,270,997 passengers in 2023. The airport also reported handling over 20,000 international and domestic flights annually. The airport provides short connections to tourist attractions such as

La Ceiba La Ceiba () is a municipality, the capital of the Honduran department of Atlántida (department), Atlántida, and a port city on the northern Caribbean coast in Honduras. It forms part of the southeastern boundary of the Gulf of Honduras. With ...

, and the Caribbean beaches of

Roatán Roatán () is an island in the Caribbean, about off the northern coast of Honduras. The largest of the Bay Islands Department, Bay Islands of Honduras, it is located between the islands of Utila and Guanaja. It is approximately long, and le ...

and

Tela Tela is a town, with a population of 39,920 (2023 calculation), and a municipality in Honduras on the northern Caribbean coast. It is located in the Atlántida department, department of Atlantida. History Colonial era Tela was founded by th ...

History

The Ramón Villeda Morales International Airport was inaugurated in February 1965. This was because of the rapid growth of the population, and the difficulty for pilots to land at the old airport located in the Barandillas neighborhood in San Pedro Sula. In addition, a modernization of the air service was being carried out, and a new airport was necessary since the old airport only had a dirt runway and a small house that served as a terminal. In 1997, the current passenger terminal was inaugurated, built in a new location to the old one inaugurated in 1965. The airport was damaged in 1998 by

Hurricane Mitch Hurricane Mitch was an extremely deadly and catastrophic Atlantic hurricane, which became the second-deadliest tropical cyclone in the Atlantic basin on record. Mitch caused 11,374 fatalities in Central America in 1998, including approximately ...

. In 2013, a remodeling of the passenger terminal began to improve the facilities and infrastructure of the airport.

Air Europa Air Europa Líneas Aéreas, S.A.U., branded as Air Europa, is the third-largest Spain, Spanish airline after Iberia (airline), Iberia and Vueling. The airline is headquartered in Llucmajor, Mallorca, Spain; it has its main hub at Adolfo Suárez M ...

started a route to Madrid using Airbus A330s in April 2017. This was Honduras's first direct link to Europe. The airport was damaged in 2020 by

Hurricane Eta Hurricane Eta was a deadly and erratic tropical cyclone that devastated parts of Central America in early November 2020. The record-tying twenty-eighth named storm, thirteenth hurricane, and sixth major hurricane of the extremely active 2020 A ...

and

Hurricane Iota Hurricane Iota was a devastating late-season tropical cyclone which caused severe damage to areas of Central America already devastated by Hurricane Eta two weeks prior. The 31st and final tropical cyclone, 30th named storm, 14th hurricane, an ...

, which submerged the airport, causing humanitarian flights to the country to be delayed. In August 2023, SAN (Servicio Aeroportuario Nacional) started a large remodeling of the airport. The project will cost $15 million (370 million lempiras) and will include new additions such as an additional gate, and many parts of the airport will get expanded.

Facilities

The airport is at an elevation 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 ...

. It has one

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, ...

with a concrete surface measuring .

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

Cargo

Several other airlines like Cargojet Airways and AeroUnion also operate flights out of San Pedro Sula to some Central American cities and the United States.

Statistics

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ramon Villeda Morales International Airport Airports in Honduras San Pedro Sula