Quito airport
| Quito Aeropuerto Internacional Mariscal Sucre Airport |
|
|---|---|
|
|
| Characteristics | |
| ICAO code | SEQM |
| IATA code | UIO |
| Coordinates | |
| Height above MSL | 2382 m (7815 ft ) |
| Transport links | |
| Distance from the city center | 37 km east of Quito |
| Street | La Ruta Viva - Via Interoceánica E28 / E35 |
| Local transport | AeroServicios shuttle service to the center every 30 minutes, US $ 8 |
| Basic data | |
| opening | 20th February 2013 |
| operator | Corporación Quiport SA |
| surface | 1500 ha |
| Terminals | 1 |
| Passengers | 4.87 million (2017) |
| Air freight | 312.112 t (2017) |
| Flight movements |
55,776 (2017) |
| Capacity ( PAX per year) |
6 million passengers |
| Start-and runway | |
| 18/36 | 4098 m × 45 m asphalt |
The Aeropuerto Internacional Mariscal Sucre is an international airport opened on February 20, 2013 near the Ecuadorian capital Quito . It replaced the previous communal airport of the same name from 1960 , which was considered difficult to control and not expandable due to its central city location.
location
The airport area is approx. 15 km as the crow flies east of Quito city center, near the town of Tababela . Other nearby places include Puembo , Pifo and Checa , among others . The airport is located in the middle of the Guayllabamba Depression . A six-lane expressway (“La Ruta Viva”), which brings travelers to the new airport and the city center in 30–40 minutes, was completed at the end of 2014.
Meteorological features
With the beginning of summer in June, landing approaches at the capital's airport often lead to aborted landings and go - around maneuvers because winds from different directions from 30 to 70 km / h make it impossible to safely land the aircraft. From June to August 2018, a total of 159 landing attempts had to be canceled the first time and in some cases other airports had to be selected as alternative destinations.
history
planning
Planning for a new airport began in 1976: At that time, the Dirección General de Aviación Civil examined possible locations for the construction of a new airport in the city and selected a site north of Tababela , which was finally purchased in 1989. In October 2000 the government authorized the construction of the new airport in addition to the renovation of the existing one. In September of the following year, the airport operator Quiport was founded for the two airports by the Canadian Aecon Group Inc. and the Brazilian partner Andrade Gutierrez SA . Construction work finally began on January 27, 2006.
Reasons to build
There were a number of arguments in favor of building a new airport.
The central location of the old airport in the city center of Quito was considered to be the main reason, as no infrastructure expansions and associated increases in capacity were possible due to the limited space the airport had. These extensions would have been necessary for several reasons. On the one hand, there were safety reasons, because both the take-off and the landing approach were considered extremely difficult. Several incidents have occurred in recent years, such as B. an Iberia plane shot over the runway and an Icaro Air plane crashed 400 meters behind the runway.
Another aspect was the limited capacity mentioned above. According to ACI and Quiport, the old airport has been operating beyond its capacity limit for several years, and the number of passengers has continued to rise. The new airport, on the other hand, could handle more than four times as many passengers (see below). The third reason that would have made an expansion necessary was economy. The runway, which is only 3100 meters long, was not only a safety risk, it also resulted in higher costs, as more fuel had to be consumed at take-off than when using the 4100-meter runway at the planned new airport. Long-haul aircraft in particular could only use 60% of their capacity at the old airport. According to Aero International , on the other hand, not only the short runway is a problem, but also the thin air, which makes it difficult for long-haul aircraft to reach the required take-off speed, which, however, will not change at an airport 400 meters lower.
Another problem with the central location - as with most inner-city airports - was aircraft noise, as tens of thousands of people live around the airport. The lower location of the new airport also had the advantage that passengers at the airport have less to contend with the symptoms of altitude sickness . In addition, a large number of jobs have been or will be created in the region as a result of the airport construction and subsequent expansions.
costs
According to Quiport, the company should have invested over US $ 700 million in the project in 2010, in December 2008 they were still at US $ 413 million. 74 million US dollars of this is equity of the investors in Quiport, the rest consists on the one hand of 160 million US dollars, which were generated by the operation of the Aeropuerto Internacional Mariscal Sucre, and on the other hand of 376 million US dollar loans from banks.
Infrastructure
The plan is to operate the airport for 30 years, until 2043. By Ecuadorian standards, the airport has a very good infrastructure - including the longest runway in the country.
First expansion stage
In the first stage of expansion, the airport will have a 4100 meter long runway and a 38,000 square meter terminal with six piers. The aircraft have a total of 45 parking positions. It is expected that there will be 42,000 square meters of space for loading and unloading air freight. The tower is 41 meters high - almost twice as high as the tower of the old airport, which measured 21 meters. The structure of the control tower (like the passenger terminal) are built in such a way that they can withstand earthquakes up to 9.0 magnitudes on the Richter scale.
Further expansion stages
According to Quiport, the plan is to have the airport expanded every 10 years after it opened on February 19, 2013. In 2023 , the terminal is to be expanded to 64,500 square meters and the number of gates is to be increased to eleven. The last expansion stage, which is expected to be implemented after 2033 , provides for a second runway of 2350 meters, which is to be built north of the first runway and run parallel to it. There is also the possibility that the terminal, which now holds 16 gates, will be converted into a purely international terminal and a second terminal will be added to handle national traffic.
meaning
Forecasts
Air traffic in Quito has seen an increase in passenger numbers for several years. In 2006 a total of 3,829,000 passengers were carried, two years later there were already 4,552,000 air travelers.
National comparison
The only national competitor of the airport is Guayaquil Airport , which will have considerable advantages over the destination Quito even after the opening of the new airport. This includes, among other things, the altitude, as the airport is very close to the Pacific and therefore the air density meets better standards. In addition, the Guayaquil metropolitan area is almost twice the size of the metropolitan area in and around Quito. Among other things, Guayaquil is the country's economic center. With a new terminal, Guayaquil Airport is also competitive with the new Quito Airport in terms of technical standards. The advantage of the Nuevo Aeropuerto Internacional de Quito compared to the airport in Guayaquil (and most other airports in Ecuador) is the runway sufficient for all types of aircraft, which in Guayaquil is only 2790 meters, which is a disadvantage when handling long-haul aircraft.
Airlines and Destinations
Destinations in South, Central and North America as well as Europe (including Madrid, Amsterdam and Frankfurt) are served from the airport in Quito. The major national airlines Avianca Ecuador , LATAM Airlines Ecuador and TAME have also been operating their hub in Quito since it went into operation.
Web links
- Airport data in the Aviation Safety Network (English)
- Operator's main page (Spanish, English)
literature
- Paco Moncayo Gallegos: El nuevo aeropuerto de Quito, documentos para la historia . Ed .: Alcaldía Metropolitana. Quito, Ecuador 2008.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Se develó la placa con el nombre del aeropuerto de Quito elcomercio.com of October 11, 2012 (Spanish)
- ^ Goosebumps runway: Notorious Quito airport closes , Spiegel Online, February 15, 2013
- ↑ Ruta Viva, la nueva vía a aeropuerto de Tababela, fue inaugurada eluniverso.com. Retrieved July 6, 2018 (Spanish)
- ↑ Los vientos dificultaron el aterrizaje de 159 vuelos en el aeropuerto de Tababela elcomercio.com. Accessed August 23, 2018 (Spanish)
- ↑ New Quito Airport construction Airport-Technology.com. Accessed July 14, 2018
- ↑ The 10 most dangerous airports in the world tz-online.de. Retrieved June 1, 2009
- ↑ a b c Aero International Edition 12/2008, pp. 28–29.
- ^ Finance - Mariscal Sucre International Airport, Quito Airport-Technology.com. Accessed July 14, 2018
- ↑ Quiport.com - Costs of the new airport (English) ( Memento of the original from October 16, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved July 1, 2009
- ↑ NUEVO AEROPUERTO MARISCAL SUCRE bagant.com. Accessed August 23, 2018 (Spanish)
- ↑ Behind the scenes at Quito's airports - old and new eu.usatoday.com. Accessed July 14, 2018
- ↑ LA TORRE DE CONTROL DE ALTA TECNOLOGÍA aeropertoquito.aero. Accessed August 23, 2018 (Spanish)
International: Guayaquil | Quito
National: Catamayo | Coca | Cuenca | Esmeraldas | Lago Agrio | Loja | Macas | Machala | Manta | Porto Viejo | Seymour | Tarapoa | Tulcan
Former: Quito (1960)