"El Salvador airport traffic grows 11%; expansion sought"

Wednesday, December 22, 2004

Airport traffic grows 11%; expansion sought
BNamericas.com


El Salvador's international airport AIES will handle 11% more passengers in
2004 than one year ago, a port authority (Cepa) official told BNamericas,
confirming local reports.

"So far this year, the amount of passengers that entered and left the
country via the international airport comes to 1,457,843, compared to
1,312,984 in 2003," he said. Also, nearly 390,000 passengers changed planes
while another 77,000 had layovers at the airport, he added. 

The airport has handled 14,168 planes this year, compared to 13,619 last
year, according to reports. 

AIES was built in the mid-1970's to handle as many as 500,000 passengers/y.
Port authorities increased capacity in 1995 due to growing demand and Cepa
now estimates airport capacity at 1.5M passengers/y. This year's figures
come close to capacity. 

EXPANSION PLANS 

As such, Cepa has destined US$1.2mn to carry out pre-feasibility and
feasibility studies to add 200m to the main landing strip, create a terminal
to receive charter flights, expand equipment check-in areas, build three
more boarding bridges and a new cargo terminal, the official said. 

Initial estimates place expansion plans at some US$70mn, "but that will be
more clearly defined by the feasibility studies." 

El Salvador's government has had informal talks with the Bank of Japan for
project funding. Any loan would have to be approved by El Salvador's
legislative assembly.


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