Olaya Herrera Airport
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Olaya Herrera Airport Aeropuerto Olaya Herrera |
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| Summary | |||||||||||
| Airport type | Commercial | ||||||||||
| Operator | AirPlan | ||||||||||
| Serves | Medellín | ||||||||||
| Location | Medellin | ||||||||||
| Elevation AMSL | 1,505 m / 4,940 ft | ||||||||||
| Coordinates | 06°13′11″N 75°35′25″W / 6.21972°N 75.59028°W | ||||||||||
| Website | www.airplan.aero | ||||||||||
| Map | |||||||||||
 EOH
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| Statistics (2009) | |||||||||||
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| Passengers movement | 1.125.253 |
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| Cargo movement | 5.498 T |
| Air operations | 82.570 |
Enrique Olaya Herrera Airport (Spanish: Aeropuerto Olaya Herrera) (IATA: EOH, ICAO: SKMD) is an airport located in Medellín, Colombia, which serves regional and domestic flights. Additionally, the airport is used by general aviation and features several hangars for charters. Olaya Herrera is the second busiest airport in Colombia by number of flights.
Today, it is considered the main regional airport of the country due to the large number of scheduled and charter flights of this type operated to and from the airport. It was formerly known as Medellin International Airport prior to the construction of José María Córdova International Airport, located in the municipality of Rionegro, Antioquia, 29 km east of the city of Medellin. Between the two airports of Medellín, there were more than 4.7 million passengers per year, which makes it the second busiest passenger city in Colombia after Bogotá.
Don Gonzalo Mejia saw an opportunity for the development of an airport in Medellin given that the topography of the city made land transport to and from the area difficult, and the nearest airport was in Puerto Berrio.
He secured financing from wealthy businessmen of the time, chose the land where the airport sits today and overcame obstacles imposed by the local government. He formed the UMCA (Urabá Central Airways Medellin) and established it as a subsidiary of Pan American Airways, which at the time had the outlook of becoming the dominant player in global aviation. The airport opened on July 5, 1932, and was named after the then president of Colombia, Enrique Olaya Herrera, who supported Don Gonzalo Mejía and his idea of an airport in Medellin.
In the 1940s the city was growing rapidly and new aircraft of the time required better facilities. Therefore, Gonzalo Mejia, signed a contract in 1945 for the expansion of the runway and the existing facilities, a work that was completed on May 1, 1947. In the 1970s, the airport was again saturated and unable to meet the demand, so the construction of new and larger José María Córdova International Airport in the nearby locality of Rionegro was announced. This resulted in the closure of Olaya Herrera Airport and the reallocation of its land to a park. Passengers, however, asked the airport not be closed, and on April 11, 1986, the airport began operations again. In that same year, the airport saw some improvements as a result of the visit of Pope John Paul II to the city. It also inspired the name for the park which remained on the western portion of the grounds of the airport: the Aeroparque Juan Pablo II. In 1992 Aerocivil ruled that the airport was to be used strictly for regional flights.
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Wikipedia