El Dorado International Airport
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| El Nuevo Dorado International Airport Aeropuerto Internacional El Nuevo Dorado |
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| IATA: BOG – ICAO: SKBO | |||
| Summary | |||
| Airport type | Public / Military | ||
| Operator | OPAIN S.A. | ||
| Elevation AMSL | 2,628 m / 8,361 ft | ||
| Coordinates | 04°42′05″N 74°08′49″W / 4.70139°N 74.14694°W | ||
| Website | |||
| Runways | |||
| Direction | Length | Surface | |
| m | ft | ||
| 13L/31R | 3,800 | 12,467 | Asphalt |
| 13R/31L | 3,800 | 12,467 | Asphalt |
El Nuevo Dorado International Airport (IATA: BOG, ICAO: SKBO), previously called El Dorado International Airport, is an international airport located in Bogotá, Colombia. It is the largest Latin American airport in terms of cargo movements 578,812 tons (2008) and the fourth in terms of passenger traffic, only behind Mexico's Benito Juarez International Airport, São Paulo-Guarulhos International Airport and Congonhas-São Paulo Airport; transporting 13,456,331 passengers in 2008; as well as the largest airport in Colombia and the main international and domestic air gateway in the country, serving as an important hub for Avianca (the national flag carrier of Colombia), AeroRepública, Aires, EasyFly and other important Cargo Companies. It is managed by Opain (acronym of Operadora Aeroportuaria Internacional), a consortium composed of Colombian construction / engineering firms and the Swiss Flughafen Zürich AG. Opain will also operate the airport for the next 20 years.
El Dorado is, politically and economically, the most important airport in Colombia and serves as the nation's primary international gateway, accounting for 49% of the total air traffic in the country. It handles all domestic and international flights into Bogotá, D.C. and boasts the world's third largest landing field 6.9 square kilometres (1,700 acres) of land. El Dorado is located about 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) west of the city center. The airport enjoys a connection with Avenida El Dorado (Calle 26) one of Bogotá's fastest runways which runs across the city in the east-west axis onto the city center and permanent public transportation (buses and taxis). By the end of the year 2008, started the construction of the TransMilenio, which will connect the airport with the massive transportation system of the city.
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[edit] Facilities
The airport has two passenger terminals, the main terminal, El Dorado, named after the famed legend of El Dorado, was built in 1959 and handles all international arrivals, as well as all other airlines and all of Avianca's international flights. Check-in counters, ticket counters, immigration office and customs are located on the lower level while information boards, information office, waiting rooms and emigration are located on the upper level.
The main building has two concourses, the national concourse and the international concourse. The national concourse has 11 gates and additional 5 for regional flights. The international concourse has 9 gates. This main building has a passenger area of 54,000 square feet (5,000 m2) and provides different services such as travel agencies, drug stores, restaurants and cafeterias, book stores and craft shops, ATM machines and Duty Free shops. Telecom offers telephone service for international and national calls, as well as fax and Internet service ($11 USD for 24 hours of WiFi access). At the national and international arrivals, passengers can find tourist information offices and transportation services within the city.
The second terminal is the Puente Aéreo Terminal (Air Bridge Terminal, in English) which opened in 1981, is a privately owned terminal that exclusively serves Avianca's and its subsidiary SAM's, domestic and regional flights. Initially, the terminal exclusively served passengers on the Miami, New York-JFK, Cali, Medellín, Pasto, and Montería routes. Newly renovated (Oct, 2006), after an investment of $7.5 million USD. El Puente Aéreo has become the most modern domestic terminal in Latin America. The terminal handles a total of more than 120 daily flights with capacity to handle 4.4 million passengers annually. It adds, as well, a constructed area of 4,416 square feet (410.3 m2) and 14 domestic gates. Some of the benefits of the Puente Aéreo Terminal include record connecting times between domestic flights. The terminal also provides additional services for travelers and visitors, such as access to shopping facilities, national and international calls, taxi services, ATM machines, restaurants and fast food restaurants and book shops.
[edit] History
The El Dorado Passenger Terminal was designed during the government of General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla. Its construction began in 1955 and entered in service at the end of 1959, replacing the interim terminal, and joining other portions of the then brand new airport. The new terminal consisted of several taxiways, maintenance platforms, parking areas, a cellar, passenger halls, Mezzanine areas and other amenities. Its second floor consisted of the departures area with, executive waiting rooms, and restaurants. The Third floor consisted mainly of offices for the airlines and the offices of other airport related services. The fourth floor held the Offices of Management and Dependencies of the managing company which accounted through to the Fifth floor. The Sixth floor contained mainly the dependencies of meteorology and power station of air navigation aids of the ECA. The Seventh floor held the route control facilities for the runways and taxiways, and the Eighth floor contained air traffic radar controllers. The Ninth floor contained the airport's electrical maintenance and offices, and the Tenth floor held the control tower and area air traffic controllers.
In 1973, the airport hit a milestone by serving nearly three million passengers, and processing nearly 5 million pieces of luggage. That year turned out to be one of most prosperous for the industry of aviation, registering high passenger growth in both domestic and international loads. In the year, the necessity for a second runway at El Dorado was expressed under concerned that the explosive growth would lead to overcongestion in due time.
In 1981, Avianca undertook the construction of the Puente Aéreo Terminal inaugurated by President Julio César Turbay Ayala, to serve its important, high density flights from Bogotá to Cali, Medellín, Miami and New York City.
In 1990, the Special Administrative Unit of Civil Aeronautics moved to the third floor in the main building. During this same year, the Centro de Estudios Aeronáuticos (CEA) was constructed and at the east part of the airport the building for the National Center for Aeronavigation.
In 1998, the second runway was officially opened.
Over the past few years, the baggage claim areas has been extended on both the northern and southern portions of the airport, and the Departure lounges towards the west have also been greatly expanded, adding more restaurants and shops.
[edit] Traffic and statistics
| Rank | City | Passenger | Rank Change |
% Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Miami, United States |
572,942 | ▬ | ▲1.39% |
| 2 |  Panama City, Panama |
485,528 | ▲1 | ▲7.33% |
| 3 |  Caracas, Venezuela |
475,862 | ▼1 | ▼1.72% |
| 4 |  Madrid, Spain |
430,898 | ▬ | ▲7.87% |
| 5 |  Lima, Peru |
413,144 | ▬ | ▲22,27% |
| 6 |  Quito, Ecuador |
285,494 | ▬ | ▼8.06% |
| 7 |  New York, United States |
228,404 | ▬ | ▲11.24% |
| 8 |  Mexico City, Mexico |
226,899 | ▬ | ▲10.72% |
| 9 |  Paris, France |
173,740 | ▬ | ▲0.79% |
| 10 |  São Paulo, Brazil |
161,977 | ▲1 | ▲49.30% |
| 11 | Ft. Lauderdale, USA |
133,749 | ▲3 | ▲33.88% |
| 12 |  Santiago, Chile |
117,037 | ▲1 | ▲12.14% |
| 13 | Atlanta, USA |
104,712 | ▼1 | ▼3.23% |
| 14 |  Buenos Aires, Argentina |
99,945 | ▼4 | ▼8,66% |
| 15 |  San Jose, Costa Rica |
97,914 | ▬ | ▲7.84% |
| 16 | Guayaquil, Ecuador |
94,450 | ▬ | ▲4.64% |
| 17 | Houston, USA |
87,345 | ▬ | ▲11.54% |
| 18 |  Oranjestad, Aruba |
70,764 | ▬ | ▲9.57% |
| 19 | Los Angeles, USA |
61,463 | ▲ | ▲22.31% |
| 20 | Valencia, Venezuela |
59,945 | ▲ | ▲ |
[edit] Avianca's main hub
On December 10, 1998, Avianca officially opened its hub in Bogotá, offering an estimated 6,000 possible connections per week, including greater numbers of frequencies, schedules and destinations served. Thus, the airline began to profit from the geographical location, population, and infrastructure of Colombia’s capital city in order to benefit the country, as well as international travellers. Connections between domestic and international destinations are currently operated directly and through codesharing agreements with airlines such as Delta Air Lines, Mexicana, Lacsa (part of Grupo Taca), Iberia and Air Canada.
Operations out of the Bogotá hub allow travelers to easily connect:
- Between Domestic Destinations (such as Medellín to San Andres).
- From a domestic destination to an international destination (Such as Cali to Los Angeles).
- From an international destination to a domestic city (Such as Ft. Lauderdale to Baranquilla).
- Between two international destinations (Such as Paris to Guayaquil).
- and allowing for simpler codeshare connections (such as Atlanta to Cartagena with Delta Air Lines and Avianca).
The hub also features facilities for easy transits, such as exclusive check-in counters for travelers in transit, as well as buses for the internal transportation between Puente Aéreo and El Dorado terminals, and a special lounge for international transit passengers to avoid having to go through Colombian customs and immigration between transits.
[edit] Airport expansion
On August 24, 2006, the Colombian government awarded a contract for a viable external investment of at least 650 million USD for the airport's expansion and modernization to Opain (acronym of Operadora Aeroportuaria Internacional), a consortium composed of Colombian construction / engineering firms and the Swiss Flughafen Zürich AG. Opain will also operate the airport for the next 20 years.
The expansion plan includes:
- The construction of a new international terminal and the modernization of the current terminal (future national terminal) will have a total of 133,875 square feet (12,437.4 m2) for passengers, 16 gates, 144 Check-in counters and 58,924 parking spaces. The airport will be equipped with the most modern baggage handle technology as well as flight information systems and security and guarding mechanisms. The airport will have a capacity of 16 million passengers a year.
- The construction of a new cargo terminal, which will allow easier access for trucks, 68,000 square feet (6,300 m2) for storage, 7,000 square feet (650 m2) for offices and 26 parking positions for planes.
- The construction of a new office building annexed to the new international terminal, the building will be 6 floors tall and will have an area of 4,500 square feet (420 m2).
- The construction of a new maintenance area (88,000 square feet (8,200 m2) with an appropriate turbine tester and the sound barriers that are necessary to avoid noise pollution.
All the buildings will be earthquake-resistant.
The Special Administrative Unit of Civil Aeronautics and the Ministry of Transport have to make a decision over a proposal made by Opain, in which the domestic and international cargo areas are to be placed at the west part of the complex, making it easy for trucks and cargo vehicles to access the cargo areas without having to go into the city. This proposal will allow as well, further expansions of the passenger terminal.
Construction began on September 20, 2007 and should end in 2012.
The first part of this massive construction plan was opened to the public on March 20, 2008. After 6 months of constant work, the check-in area was expanded, the new CUTE system was installed as well as a new baggage handling system. All these works were made in order to help with the already chaotic airport until the new terminal is constructed.
The second part commenced on March 20, 2008 and will be open to the public on September 20, 2009. This includes a new international cargo terminal, the adecuation of the new national cargo terminal and the demolition of the actual national cargo terminal.
[edit] Airlines and destinations
[edit] El Dorado Terminal
[edit] Domestic concourse
| Airlines | Destinations |
|---|---|
| AeroRepública | Barranquilla, Bucaramanga, Cali, Cartagena, Cúcuta, Leticia, Medellín-Córdova, Montería, San Andrés Island, Santa Marta |
| AIRES | Armenia, Barranquilla, Bucaramanga, Cali, Cartagena, Florencia, Ibagué, Manizales, Medellín-Córdova, Montería, Neiva, Pereira, Popayán, Puerto Asís, San Andrés Island, Santa Marta, Quibdó, Villavicencio, Yopal |
| EasyFly | Armenia, Barrancabermeja, Cartago, Neiva, Quibdó, Yopal |
| SATENA | Arauca, Buenaventura, Corozal, Leticia, Medellín-Olaya Herrera, Mitú, Neiva, Pasto, Popayán, Puerto Asís, Puerto Inírida, Puerto Carreño, Quibdó, San José del Guavire, Saravena, San Andrés Island, Valledupar, Villavicencio |
[edit] International concourse
| Airlines | Destinations |
|---|---|
| AeroGal | Quito |
| Aerolineas Argentinas | Buenos Aires-Ezeiza, Lima |
| AIRES | Maracaibo |
| Air Canada | Toronto-Pearson |
| Air Comet | Madrid |
| Air France | Paris-Charles de Gaulle |
| American Airlines | Miami |
| Avianca | Aruba, Barcelona, Buenos Aires-Ezeiza, Caracas, Cancun [seasonal], Curaçao, Fort Lauderdale, Guayaquil, Lima, Los Angeles, Madrid, Mexico City, Miami, New York-JFK, Panama City, Porlamar, Punta Cana, Quito, Santo Domingo, Santiago de Chile, São Paulo-Guarulhos, Washington-Dulles |
| Avianca operated by SAM | Aruba, Curaçao, Guayaquil, San José de Costa Rica, Valencia |
| Continental Airlines | Houston-Intercontinental, Newark |
| Copa Airlines | Panama City |
| Copa Airlines operated by AeroRepública | Panama City, Porlamar, Punta Cana |
| Cubana de Aviacion | Havana |
| Delta Air Lines | Atlanta, New York-JFK |
| Dutch Antilles Express | Curaçao |
| Iberia Airlines | Madrid |
| JetBlue Airways | Orlando |
| LACSA | San José de Costa Rica |
| LAN Airlines | Miami, Santiago de Chile |
| LAN Perú | Lima |
| Mexicana de Aviacion | Mexico City |
| TACA Peru | Lima |
| SATENA | Punta Cana [seasonal] |
| Spirit Airlines | Fort Lauderdale |
| Varig | Manaus, São Paulo-Guarulhos |
[edit] Puente Aéreo Terminal
The Puente Aéreo Terminal has been Avianca's exclusive terminal since 1991, it has 14 gates. It operates all the regional and domestic services of Avianca and its subsidiary SAM from Bogotá. 19 destinations in the country can be reached from the Puente Aéreo:
| Airlines | Destinations |
|---|---|
| Avianca | Armenia, Barrancabermeja, Barranquilla, Bucaramanga, Cali, Cartagena, Cúcuta, Ibagué, Manizales, Medellín-Córdova, Neiva, Pasto, Pereira, Popayán, San Andrés Island, Santa Marta |
| SAM | Armenia, Barrancabermeja, Barranquilla, Bucaramanga, Cali, Cartagena, Cúcuta, Medellín-Cordova, Montería, Neiva, Pasto, Pereira, Riohacha, San Andrés Island, Santa Marta, Valledupar |
[edit] Charter services
[edit] Cargo airlines
[edit] Domestic Terminal
- AeroSucre
- AeroSur
- Colombian Air Cargo
- Cargo Express
- Líneas Aéreas Suramericanas
- Tampa Cargo
- Avianca Cargo
[edit] International Terminal
- AeroSucre
- ABSA
- Arrow Air
- Atlas Air
- British Airways World Cargo
- Cargolux
- Centurion Air Cargo
- Cielos del Perú
- DHL
- FedEx Express
- Focus Air Cargo
- Florida West International Airways
- Kalitta Air
- LAN Cargo
- LANCO
- Líneas Aéreas Suramericanas
- Lufthansa Cargo
- Martinair Cargo
- MasAir
- UPS Airlines
- Singapore Airlines Cargo
- Southern Air
- Panavia
- Polar Air Cargo
- Tampa Cargo
- Vensecar Internacional
- World Airways
[edit] Accidents and incidents
- Avianca Flight 52, flying on a Bogota-Medellin-New York JFK route, crashed on January 25, 1990 on Long Island after running out of fuel.
- Air France Flight 422 from Eldorado Airport to Quito, Ecuador, using an aircraft leased from TAME and flown with Ecuadorian crew, crashed on April 20, 1998 into a mountain near Bogota. All 43 passengers and 10 crew died.[2][3]
- On July 7, 2008, a Kalitta Air Boeing 747-209B (N714CK serial number 22446/519) crashed shortly after departing from El Dorado International Airport in Bogotá at 3:55 am. The plane was en route to Miami, Florida, with a shipment of flowers. After reporting a fire in one of the engines, the plane attempted the return to the airport but crashed near the village of Madrid, Colombia. One of the plane's engines hit a farm house, killing an adult and two children who lived there. The crew of eight survived.[4][5]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Estadísticas de operaciones aéreas 2007
- ^ Fatal Events Since 1970 for Air France
- ^ AirDisaster.Com Accident Database
- ^ "US cargo plane crashes into Colombian house, 3 dead". AFP. 2008-07-07. http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jpxEvFKTQrHypeau2Va_YnnF3HGg. Retrieved on 2008-07-07.
- ^ "US plane crashes into Colombian house". The Sydney Morning Herald. 2008-07-08. http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/us-plane-crashes-into-colombian-house/2008/07/08/1215282783048.html. Retrieved on 2008-07-08.
[edit] External links
- (Spanish) (English) El Dorado International Airport Official Site
- (Spanish) Civil Aeronautic Administrative Special Unit - Aerocivil
- (Spanish) Authorized itineraries by the Aerocivil (only passenger airlines)
- (Spanish) Official information about El Dorado International Airport concession
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