Eloy Alfaro International Airport

Eloy Alfaro International Airport
IATA: MEC ICAO: SEMT
Summary
Airport type	Public / Military
Operator	Military of Ecuador
Location	Manta, Ecuador
Elevation AMSL	48 ft / 15 m
Coordinates	00°56′45″S 80°40′43″W / 0.94583°S 80.67861°W / -0.94583; -80.67861
Map
MEC Location of airport in Ecuador
Runways
Direction Length Surface m ft 05/23 2,860 9,383 Asphalt
Source: WAD GCM Google Maps

Eloy Alfaro International Airport (IATA: MEC, ICAO: SEMT) is a combination civilian airport and military air base on the Pacific coast near Manta, a city in the Manabí Province of Ecuador. The airport, also known as Eloy Alfaro Air Base, is named in honor of Eloy Alfaro, a former president of Ecuador. It was inaugurated by the Ecuadorian Air Force on October 24, 1978. It is the fourth busiest airport in Ecuador.

The Manta VOR-DME (Ident: MNV) and non-directional beacon (Ident: MNT) are located on the field.

Until July 2009 a portion of the airport was used by the Air Forces Southern Air Force component of the United States Southern Command for operations against illegal cocaine trafficking in northwestern South America. It was formally known as Forward Operating Location Manta. In 1999, the U.S. signed a ten-year agreement with then Ecuadorean President Jamil Mahuad allowing the U.S. to station up 475 military personnel at Manta, rent-free. USAF AWACS E-3 and United States Navy P-3 Orion aircraft, supported by about 300 US military personnel, operated from the base to monitor air traffic in the area. The U.S. aircraft based at Manta fed surveillance information to the Joint Interagency Task Force South in Key West. The aircraft at the base flew about 100 missions a month looking for drug-running boats departing Colombia. In 2007, the flights led to about 200 cocaine seizures, totaling about 230 tons. The flights accounted for about 60 percent of U.S. drug interdiction in the eastern Pacific.