Simón Bolívar International Airport (Venezuela)

Maiquetía "Simón Bolívar" International Airport Aeropuerto Internacional de Maiquetía "Simón Bolívar"
IATA: CCS ICAO: SVMI
Summary
Airport type	Public
Owner/Operator	Instituto Autónomo del Aeropuerto Internacional de Maiquetía
Serves	Caracas, Venezuela
Location	Maiquetía
Hub for	Conviasa LASER Airlines Aeropostal Aserca Airlines
Elevation AMSL	235 ft / 72 m
Website	aeropuerto-maiquetia.com.ve
Map
SVMI Location of airport in Venezuela
Runways
Direction Length Surface m ft 10/28 3,610 11,483 Asphalt 09/27 3,270 9,930 Asphalt
Statistics (2012)
Total passengers 10430243

Simón Bolívar International Airport or Maiquetía "Simón Bolívar" International Airport (IATA: CCS, ICAO: SVMI, Spanish: Aeropuerto Internacional de Maiquetia "Simón Bolívar") is an international airport located in Maiquetía, about 21 kilometres (13 mi) from downtown Caracas, the capital of Venezuela. Simply called Maiquetía by the local population, it is the main international air passenger gateway to Venezuela among the twelve international airports in the country. It handles flights to many important destinations in the Americas, the Caribbean and some in Europe.

History

The airport opened in 1945 as the Aeropuerto Internacional de Maiquetía.

It was regularly visited by the Anglo-French supersonic airliner Concorde.

In the 1970s an international terminal was constructed to offer increased capacity with a domestic terminal opening in the 1980s.

Since 2000, the airport has been undergoing major changes in order to meet international standards and to improve passenger traffic, security, immigration areas, and customs areas. Security measures have become top priority since the September 11 attacks, and now departure areas and arrival areas are completely split into the lower and upper levels of the airport.

As part of an expansion plan, new international gates are currently in construction, and a section of the parking area has been cleared to build an airport hotel.

Transport links

In the 1950s, under the regime of Marcos Pérez Jiménez, road transport between the airport and the capital was improved by the inauguration of the Caracas-La Guaira highway. However, the La Guaira and Caracas Railway, dating from the nineteenth century, was closed. (In May 2007 a maglev train was proposed to link Caracas to La Guaira and Simón Bolívar International Airport).

Terminals, airlines and destinations

View of the apron

Customs and immigration area

Passenger

Air France Boeing 747-400 in Caracas

LASER Airlines McDonnell Douglas MD-81 in Caracas

Alitalia Boeing 767-300ER in Caracas

Airlines	Destinations	Terminal1
Aerolíneas Argentinas	Buenos Aires-Ezeiza	I
Aeroméxico	Mexico City	I
Aeropostal	Barquisimeto, Cumaná, Las Piedras, Maracaibo, Maturín, Porlamar, Puerto Ordaz	D
Air Europa	Madrid Seasonal: Santiago de Compostela, Tenerife-North	I
Air France	Paris-Charles de Gaulle	I
Alitalia	Rome-Fiumicino (ends 2 June 2014)	I
American Airlines	Dallas/Fort Worth, Miami, New York-JFK, San Juan	I
Aserca Airlines	Barcelona, Barquisimeto, Las Piedras, Maracaibo, Maturín, Porlamar, Puerto Ordaz, Santo Domingo	D
Aserca Airlines	Aruba	I
Avianca	Bogotá, Lima	I
Avior Airlines	Barcelona, Barinas, Maracaibo, Mérida, Porlamar, Puerto Ordaz, Valera	D
Avior Airlines	Aruba, Curaçao	I
Caribbean Airlines	Port of Spain	I
Conviasa	Barcelona, Barinas, Barquisimeto, Coro, Cumaná, El Vigía, La Fría, Las Piedras, Maracaibo, Maturín, Porlamar, Puerto Ayacucho, Puerto Ordaz, Santo Domingo, San Tomé	D
Conviasa	Bogotá, Buenos Aires-Ezeiza, Havana, Madrid, Panama City	I
Copa Airlines	Panama City	I
Copa Airlines Colombia	Bogotá, Medellín-Córdova	I
Cubana de Aviación	Havana	I
Delta Air Lines	Atlanta	I
Estelar Latinoamérica	Maracaibo, Porlamar	D
Estelar Latinoamérica	Curaçao	I
Gol operated by Varig	Aruba, Punta Cana, São Paulo-Guarulhos	I
Iberia	Madrid	I
Insel Air	Curaçao	I
Insel Air Aruba	Aruba	I
LAN Airlines	Guayaquil, Miami, Santiago de Chile	I
LAN Perú	Lima	I
LASER Airlines	Barcelona, El Vigía, Maracaibo, Porlamar, Santo Domingo	D
LASER Airlines	Aruba, Santo Domingo Seasonal: Punta Cana	I
Línea Turística Aereotuy	Los Roques	D
Lufthansa	Frankfurt	I
RUTACA Airlines	Barcelona, Ciudad Bolívar, Porlamar, Puerto Ordaz, Santo Domingo	D
SBA Airlines	Miami, Panama City	I
TAM Airlines	São Paulo-Guarulhos	I
TAME	Bogotá	I
TAP Portugal	Funchal, Lisbon, Porto	I
United Airlines	Houston-Intercontinental	I
Venezolana	Maracaibo	D
Venezolana	Santo Domingo	I

¹ D = Domestic Terminal, I = International Terminal.

Cargo

The following airlines maintain freight operations to and from Simón Bolívar International Airport:

ABSA Cargo Airline ABX Air Amerijet Atlas Air

Centurion Air Cargo Cielos del Peru DHL Aviation Mas Air

LAN Cargo LANCO Star Airways Southern Air

Tampa Cargo Vensecar Internacional Venezolana Servicios Express World Airways

Statistics

Movements	2013	2012	2011	2010	2009	2008	2007	2006	2005
National	7,256,934	6,208,000	5,796,629	5,277,907	4,863,991	4,559,247	4,621,254	3,781,682	3,547,602
International	4,699,244	4,222,000	4,115,214	3,552,781	3,909,470	4,081,752	3,668,783	3,251,037	3,224,981
Total	11,956,178	10,430,000	9,911,843	8,830,688	8,773,461	8,722,268	8,373,053	7,032,719	6,772,583
Source: IAIM

Other facilities

From 1960 to 1997, it was the main hub for VIASA, Venezuela's former flag carrier till it went bankrupt. Conviasa (Consorcio Venezolano de Industrias Aeronáuticas y Servicios Aéreos, S.A.) replaced it in 2004. The headquarters of Conviasa is located on the airport grounds.

Accidents and incidents

• On 27 November 1956, a Linea Aeropostal Flight 253, a Lockheed Constellation, crashed while on final approach to Caracas Airport. All 25 passengers and crew on board were killed.

• On 12 December 1968, Pan Am Flight 217, crashed while on approach to Caracas. All 51 passengers and crew on board were killed.

• On 4 December 1969, Air France Flight 212 crashed shortly after takeoff from Simón Bolívar International Airport. All 62 passengers and crew on board were killed.

• On 16 October 2008 a RUTACA Airlines Boeing 737 went out of the runway while braking for arrival at 3:30 PM. It was flying from San Antonio de Tachira with 44 people. No one was killed or injured.

See also

• Los Roques Airport – an airport serving Los Roques archipelago national park, remotely controlled from Simón Bolívar International Airport
• List of airports in Venezuela
• List of Venezuelan airlines

External links

Media related to Simón Bolívar International Airport at Wikimedia Commons

• Aeropuerto Internacional de Maiquetía "Simón Bolívar" (official website)
• Template:WAD
• Accident history for CCS at Aviation Safety Network