Ernesto Cortissoz International Airport - History

History

At the beginning of commercial aviation in Colombia, airport construction was in charge of each airline purporting to serve a particular city. Thus construction of major airports in Colombia fell to SCADTA, including Soledad Airport.

Soledad Airport soon became the main center of operations and maintenance of SCADTA for their domestic operations. International services were operated by Pan American Airways, which maintained scheduled DC-3 service, later supplemented by Boeing 307 Stratoliners, to Panama, Kingston and Miami. In 1946 international service at Soledad Airport resumed with Avianca DC-4s, first to Miami and later to Kingston and New York.

Also in 1946 British South American Airways commenced operation at Barranquilla, using a Lancastrian to provide one weekly flight to London via Bermuda. The service took 26 hours and was referred to as "The Lightning Route to Europe". Also that year a number of special flights with DC-4 aircraft were operated from Barranquilla to Miami and New York under contract with the airline Transocean Airlines. The Aviation Company KLM (Department of the West Indies) also started operating in Barranquilla with DC-4 aircraft, giving passengers the opportunity to connect with scheduled flights to Curaçao, Netherlands Antilles, Jamaica, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Venezuela and Trinidad. In the early fifties LANSA inaugurated a service from Barranquilla to Havana, but never won permission to fly to Miami. However in the sixties TAXADER establish a service to Miami, but only for a few months.

Soledad Airport soon established itself as the premier international airport in Colombia and the first hub in the country. In the mid-50s Avianca built in Soledad one of the most important aviation maintenance shops in Latin America, two large hangars were built to house several aircraft at once. There were workshop for propellers, hydraulics, tools, electro-mechanical systems and metal rolling. The maintenance facility also included a painting workshop, warehouse of spare parts and a technical school. The workshop was certified by the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) of the United States for repair and overhaul of all types of domestic and foreign aircraft.

Also, in the early 1950s a unique system was built for loading and unloading passengers and cargo from DC-4s that drastically reduced the time required by a claimed 50%. With this system the DC-4 taxed to where it was in a certain spot and then electric carts on rails that were flush with the runway surface moved the aircraft sideways to the unloading gangways.

With the opening of the El Dorado International Airport in Bogota in December 1959, Soledad was relegated to secondary importance in the country. It was only upon the delivery of the first Boeing 727 to Avianca in 1966 that the runway was extended. However in order to appropriately handle modern jet airliners, and the resulting passenger traffic, there was a need to build a new international airport with a modern terminal, stands, larger runways and taxiways and all necessary facilities for the city of Barranquilla. There was hope that this project would put Barranquilla back on the map as an airport served by major international carriers.

Finally on the afternoon of April 7, 1981, Julio Cesar Turbay, president of the Republic and Alvaro Uribe Velez, Chief of the Aeronáutica Civil dedicated Barranquilla's new international airport Ernesto Cortissoz. The new terminal, with an area of 35 thousand square meters, along with its new control tower, apron, taxiways and runway (now 3,000 meters long by 45m wide) were built north of the old Soledad Airport. The design was by architect Aníbal González Moreno-Ripoll and the new terminal was built by the firm Walls, Bridges, Ltda Vasquez. The New terminal had seven domestic gates and four international gates each with their own waiting area. The premises of the former terminal building became the cargo area.

Currently, the company Caribbean Airports S. A. "ACSA" is the operator of airport concession. ACSA was incorporated in the month of December 1996 and its main activity is the administration and economic exploitation of Ernesto Cortissoz International Airport. This status was granted by the State through the renewable concession contract, number 001-CON-97, concluded with the Special Administrative Unit of Civil Aeronautics for a term of 15 years. Under this contract ACSA assumed operations on March 1, 1997. According to the contract award, administration and economic exploitation includes the provision of all airport services, maintenance and management of the terminal, runway, ramp, airport facilities, visual aids for approach and access roads. Aeronáutica Civil reserved management and responsibility for control and monitoring functions of en route air traffic and the proper functioning of air navigation aids, including approach, communications and other equipment intended and necessary for the proper air traffic control.

Ernesto Cortissoz International Airport is named after one of the most important Colombian aviation pioneers. Ernesto Cortissoz was an entrepreneur, born in Barranquilla, which along with four Colombians and three Germans founded SCADTA in December 1919. On June 8, 1924 while traveling in the Junkers F.13 "Tolima" together with other executives of the company, he died as a result of one of the first plane crashes in the country.

Barranquilla International Airport is a pride for the citizens and has the potential to continue growing and become the main cargo hub in the region.