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El Salvador International Airport

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El Salvador International Airport (IATA: SAL, ICAO: MSLP), commonly known as Comalapa International Airport or its real name Cuscatlán International Airport, is located about 50 km (30 miles) from San Salvador in El Salvador. It was built in the late 1970s to replace its predecessor, Ilopango International Airport, which is now used for military and charter aviation, but there are plans to rehabilitate it as an international airport by 2009. There are also plans to build a new airport on the Salvadoran coast of El Tamarindo, La Union, along with tourist facilities on the beach. The project is in association with the Exedra Group of Italy.

International airport of Comalapa

Airport Infrastructure

Comalapa serves as the Main Hub for Grupo TACA.

The cargo terminal, located a few metres left of the passenger terminal, handles millions of tons of cargo each year. El Salvador International Airport (or Comalapa International) is located 45 minutes from the city of San Salvador. Excellent roads connect the airport with the city. Many international flights are scheduled every day to all Central America, North American and South American.


When the airport was built it originally had only 7 gates, it was designed to handle around 400,000 passengers a year, but the high increase of passengers in the last 15 years brought the airport to its capacity. The airport has had two main expansions in last decade or so, its first phase (named AIES I), the airprot grew from 7 boarding gates to 12, and later the second phase AIES II, added 5 more gates bringing the total to 17, along with new gates, new expanded passenger waiting areas were built. Even though all these expansions have been made, the airport once again has reached the peak of its capacity.

In 2007, a French airport authority hired by the owner of the airport (CEPA) is designing a $700 million renovation and expansion mega-project, which will cmpletely remake the passenger terminal, add more gates and a second runway and extend the current one. The configuration of the current structures will change dramatically. The groundbreaking is schueduled for the first trimester of 2009.

File:In comalapa.jpg
Comalapa airport, waiting area
Looking towards the airport from inside a plane

Modernization Project & Expansion

El Salvador made an agreement with the government of France to study the structure of the airport in the first semester of 2007. This study will be in charge of ADPI, a french company which is a subsidiary of Paris's Charles de Gaulle International Airport. One of the most important things that the Government of El Salvador is planning to do is to separate the passengers that come to the country from those who are leaving it. In order to prevent this pollution of passengers, the project involves building a raised highway, as a ceiling for the actual one, being the one up for the passenger who leave and the low highway for the passengers who come. A render of the airport's new design was recently revealed by the McHarry firm of architects and more info can be found here http://www.mcharry.com/html/3-elsal.htm

Facts

The airport's modern facilities include duty-free shops, fast food and full-service restaurants, bars, air conditioned areas, tourist facilities, car rental, clean bathrooms, and spacious waiting rooms. With space for 17 airplanes on the main terminal, 3 on the cargo terminal, 5 in Aeroman, and around 20 in the "Long Term Parking" which is runway 18/36 plus one of the world's most modern airport radars, 94.5% of the airport's flights are on time (2005 data). The airport and runway have been closed at least twice in the almost quarter century since opening. They were closed for several hours following the devastating earthquake of 2001, followed up with minor repairs to the east end of the runway. They were closed again for several hours in 2005 due to Hurricane Stan. Although the airport is located near the Pacific Ocean, storms and hurricanes are not frequent.

Airlines and Destinations

Comalapa has one terminal

Terminal 1 (International Terminal)

  • Air Transat (Montreal, Toronto-Pearson) [all seasonal]
  • American Airlines (Los Angeles, Miami)
  • Continental Airlines (Houston-Intercontinental, Newark)
  • Copa Airlines (Managua, Panama City, San Andres Island [seasonal])
  • Czech Airlines (Prage, Czech Republic) [Starts January 2nd]
  • Delta Air Lines (Atlanta)
  • Livingston Energy Flight (Cancun, Milan-Malpensa) [begins Oct 21 2007]
  • Mexicana (Mexico City)
  • TACA (Belize City, Dallas/Fort Worth, Guatemala City, Houston-Intercontinental, Los Angeles, Managua, Mexico City, Miami, New York-JFK, Oakland[starts November 16], Panama City, Roatan, San Andres Island[charter], San Francisco, San Pedro Sula, Tegucigalpa, Washington-Dulles)
    • TACA Operated by Aviateca (Guatemala City)
    • TACA Operated by Lacsa (San José(CR), New York-JFK, Toronto-Pearson, La Havana, Santo Domingo)
    • TACA Operated by TACA Peru (Lima)
  • United Airlines (Los Angeles)

News

Cargo Terminal

Previous Carriers

  • Pan Am (Miami, Los Angeles)
  • US Airways (Guatemala City, Fort Lauderdale)
  • Iberia (Madrid, San Juan, San Jose)
  • SAM (Guatemala, San José, San Andrés, Bogotá)
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