Simón Bolívar International Airport () . Unidad Administrativa Especial de Aeronáutica Civil ( UAEAC). Accessed 16 October 2009. 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 ...

serving the city of

Santa Marta Santa Marta (), officially the Distrito Turístico, Cultural e Histórico de Santa Marta (), is a port List of cities in Colombia, city on the coast of the Caribbean Sea in northern Colombia. It is the capital of Magdalena Department and the fou ...

Colombia Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...

. The airport is located south of Santa Marta city center, on the shores of the

Caribbean Sea The Caribbean Sea is a sea of the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean in the tropics of the Western Hemisphere, located south of the Gulf of Mexico and southwest of the Sargasso Sea. It is bounded by the Greater Antilles to the north from Cuba ...

. north of the municipality of Ciénaga in

. It is operated by ''Aeropuertos De Oriente S.A.S.'', through a concession agreement with

Aerocivil The Civil Aviation Authority of Colombia (, also known as ''Aeronáutica Civil'', ''Aerocivil'' or UAEAC) is a government agency of the Colombian Ministry of Transport (Colombia), Ministry of Transport. It is the agency in charge of regulating ci ...

. It is the

of Colombia with the shortest runway, 1700 meters long. It is named in honor of

Simón Bolívar Simón José Antonio de la Santísima Trinidad Bolívar y Palacios (24July 178317December 1830) was a Venezuelan statesman and military officer who led what are currently the countries of Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Panama, and Bol ...

, the military and political leader who played a leading role in the establishment of several South American countries as sovereign states, and who died in Santa Marta in 1830. The airport name is also currently the name of the airport in Maiquetía (Caracas),

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

History

Construction

The construction of the Santa Marta airport was inaugurated on 8 December 1949, by the company Líneas Aéreas Nacionales, for the

Magdalena Department Magdalena () is a Departments of Colombia, department of Colombia, located in the north of the country by the Caribbean Sea, with more than 1.3 million people. The capital of the Magdalena Department is Santa Marta and was named after the Mag ...

, a modern airport that will satisfy pressing and urgent regional needs. Back in those days, the airport had exceptional location conditions since it was used to operate by water and land. The dirt track was located parallel to the sea and is built in two stages: the first 1,200 meters long and the second with an extension to 1,000. For the operation of seaplanes, there is sufficient depth. These ships can reach about 50 meters from the airport building. The preliminary plans for the terminal building were under study and approval by the

and once approved the LANZA Company began its construction to complete it in the shortest possible time. it was also equipped with a modern control tower with all the devices for meteorological observations. At present, the ground movement works at Simón Bolívar Airport was progressing satisfactorily, under the direction of LANZA's engineering chief, Enrique Pérez Ayala. Santa Marta has, in its airport, a key to its development and progress. The airport was recognized as an

in 2007.

Viva Air Colombia Hub (2018-2019)

In May 2018, Viva Air Colombia announced the opening of its third operational base in Santa Marta airport, which began in October 2018 and became the first airline to operate as a hub in the airport. The new hub provided connections to destinations such as

Bucaramanga Bucaramanga () is the capital and largest city of the department of Santander Department, Santander, Colombia. Bucaramanga has the fifth-largest economy by GDP in Colombia, has the lowest unemployment rate and is the ninth most populous city i ...

, Pereira & San Andrés, ended at the beginning of 2019. In August 2018, Viva Air Colombia announced an international route to

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

from Santa Marta airport, which started on 18 December 2018. The route ended in April 2019.

Facilities

The airport has a new medical health care facility for primary services, a new

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, airline offices, a new food square, renovated restrooms, and indoor ATMs.

Avianca Avianca S.A. (acronym in Spanish for ''Aerovias de Colombia S.A.'', "Airways of Colombia", and stylized as avianca since October 2023) is the largest airline in Colombia. It has been the flag carrier of Colombia since December 5, 1919, when it ...

, Clic, Jetsmart Colombia,

LATAM Colombia Aerovías de Integración Regional S.A. (Acronym: ''AIRES'', lit. ''airs''), d/b/a LATAM Airlines Colombia (formerly known as LAN Colombia), is a Colombian airline. It is the second-largest air carrier in Colombia, after Avianca. It operates sc ...

, and Wingo are the only commercial carriers that operate domestic passenger flights and

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 ...

as the only international airline in the airport. The airport resides 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, ...

designated 01/19 with 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 measuring . The Santa Marta

VOR/DME In radio navigation, a VOR/DME is a radio beacon that combines a VHF omnidirectional range (VOR) with a distance-measuring equipment (DME). The VOR allows the receiver to measure its bearing to or from the beacon, while the DME provides the sla ...

(Ident: STA) is located south of the airport.

Renovation and expansion

2015 - 2018

The airport facilities were outdated and insufficient for the recent increase of tourism in Santa Marta, which had between 1.5 million and 1.7 million domestic passengers in 2016 and 2017. Renovation of the airport facilities began on 2 February 2015. The project investment had an investment of more than 109,500 million COP (US$37 million, approximately) and it took 36 months (3 years) to be completely expanded and renovated. This renovation comprises the expansion of the new terminal building from to with a spacious check-in area with 24 counters and capacity to serve up to 2.6 million passengers per year. The parking lot was increased from to , and has parking for 33 taxis and 7 minibuses. The underground parking lot has space for 170 cars and 44 motorcycles, five

baggage carousel A baggage carousel is a device, generally at an airport, that delivers checked luggage to the passengers at the baggage reclaim area at their final destination. Airports without carousels generally deliver baggage by placing it on the floor or ...

s, and new air-conditioning systems. The apron area went from to , with five glass-walled

jet bridge 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 ...

s capable of taking

Airbus Airbus SE ( ; ; ; ) is a Pan-European aerospace corporation. The company's primary business is the design and manufacturing of commercial aircraft but it also has separate Airbus Defence and Space, defence and space and Airbus Helicopters, he ...

A318,

A319 The Airbus A319 is a member of the Airbus A320 family of short- to medium-range, narrow-body, commercial passenger twin-engine jet airliners manufactured by Airbus. The A319 carries 124 to 156 passengers and has a maximum range of . Final assem ...

A320 The Airbus A320 family is a series of narrow-body airliners developed and produced by Airbus. The A320 was launched in March 1984, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was introduced in April 1988 by Air France. The first member of the famil ...

Embraer 170 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 ...

Embraer 190 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 ...

Boeing The Boeing Company, or simply Boeing (), is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product support s ...

737 and 767 aircraft. The new control tower is high with eight floors and independent access. It has operated since 31 May 2016. The renovation and expansion of the airport were completed in February 2018.

Runway extension

The airport's runway is surrounded by the beach and sea, which restricted its length. Because of the short runway, it is one of the shortest of any major airport in Colombia. Passenger and Cargo airliners have never arrived on aircraft larger than the

Airbus A321 The Airbus A321 is a member of the Airbus A320 family of short to medium range, Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body, commercial passenger Twinjet, twin engine jet airliners; it carries 185 to 236 passengers. It has a stretched fuselage which was ...

or equivalent. No wide-body passenger airliners have ever been scheduled at Santa Marta airport. In March 2017, when

Germán Vargas Lleras Germán Vargas Lleras (; born 19 February 1962) is a Colombian politician who recently served as Vice President of Colombia under President Juan Manuel Santos Calderón. A member of the Radical Change political party, he served four consecutive ...

was the Vice President of Colombia, he stated that the extension of the runway will be extended over the sea and would cost 350,000 million COP (US$70 million, approx). The National Government would invest 200,000 million COP in the runway, with the rest invested by the Magdalena Department. The runway will meet the minimum length requirements for the operation of

wide-body aircraft A wide-body aircraft, also known as a twin-aisle aircraft and in the largest cases as a jumbo jet, is an airliner with a fuselage wide enough to accommodate two passenger aisles with seven or more seats abreast. The typical fuselage diameter is ...

and also international destinations. The runway would go over the sea from Category C3 to Category D4 .

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

Cargo

Statistics

Busiest domestic routes (2018)

Ground transportation

Public Transport

Santa Marta Airport is also easily accessible by bus, operated by SETP and STU.

Car

Simon Bolivar Airport is located near the motorway ''Transversal del Caribe''

Taxi

Taxis are available at

Taxicab stand A taxicab stand (also called taxi rank, cab stand, taxi stand, cab rank, or hack stand) is a queue area on a street or on private property where taxicabs line up to wait for passengers. Operation Stands are normally located at high-traffic l ...

located outside the Terminal.

Incidents and accidents

*On 4 August 1982,

Aerotal AeroTal (Colombian Territorial Airlines, formerly as the Airlines El Llanero) was a Colombian airline based in the La Vanguardia Airport of Villavicencio. The airline specialized in both regional, domestic and international flights. It was found ...

, flight HK-2559, a

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 ...

aircraft, landed several meters before reaching the head of the runway, bounced off the runway and lost the left main landing gear, causing the aircraft to leave the track and end up in the safety zone. *On 29 November 1982,

, flight HK-2560, a

aircraft, suffered a hydraulic fault and when landing, the left main wheel was retracted and the jet left the runway. *On 17 July 2007, AeroRepública flight 7330, an Embraer ERJ-190 aircraft, overshot the runway, went down an embankment, and ended up with the front end of the aircraft immersed on the ocean. *On 16 October 2022, a

Cirrus Vision SF50 The Cirrus Vision SF50, also known as the Vision Jet, is a single-engine very light jet designed and produced by Cirrus Aircraft of Duluth, Minnesota, United States. After receiving deposits starting in 2006, Cirrus unveiled an aircraft mock- ...

registered HK-5342 overran the runway, went through the airport fence, crossed the road and crashed into a tree on the north of the beach known as "Playa Dormida" . Everyone in the aircraft survived with mild injuries. There was a single fatality and 8 people injured.

In popular culture

* The airport appears in the movie American Made, starring

Tom Cruise Thomas Cruise Mapother IV (born July 3, 1962) is an American actor and film producer. Regarded as a Cinema of the United States, Hollywood icon, he has received List of awards and nominations received by Tom Cruise, various accolades, includ ...

, about an American pilot recruited by the

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

for covert operations of Colombian drug kingpin

Pablo Escobar Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria (; ; 1 December 19492 December 1993) was a Colombian drug lord, narcoterrorist, and politician who was the founder and leader of the Medellín Cartel. Dubbed the "King of Cocaine", Escobar was one of the wealthie ...

and then was a

DEA The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is a United States federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Justice tasked with combating illicit drug trafficking and distribution within the U.S. It is the lead agency for domes ...

informant. The movie was released on 29 September 2017.

References

External links

*
OpenStreetMap – Simón BolívarSkyVector – Simón Bolívar
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Simon Bolivar International Airport (Colombia) Airports in Colombia Buildings and structures in Magdalena Department