Alfredo Vásquez Cobo International Airport ( es, Aeropuerto Internacional Alfredo Vásquez Cobo, ) is an

international airport An international airport is an airport with customs and border control facilities enabling passengers to travel between countries around the world. International airports are usually larger than domestic airports and they must feature longer ...

located in Leticia, Colombia's southernmost city and capital of the

Amazonas Department Amazonas () is a department of Southern Colombia in the south of the country. It is the largest department in area while also having the 3rd smallest population. Its capital is Leticia and its name comes from the Amazon River, which drains t ...

. The airport is important for the

Amazon region The Amazon basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries. The Amazon drainage basin covers an area of about , or about 35.5 percent of the South American continent. It is located in the countries of Bolivi ...

, as it is the main gateway to the rest of the country and serves the tri-border area between Colombia, Brazil and Peru.

History

Before Leticia had an established airport, the Colombian Air Force flew

PBY Catalina The Consolidated PBY Catalina is a flying boat and amphibious aircraft that was produced in the 1930s and 1940s. In Canadian service it was known as the Canso. It was one of the most widely used seaplanes of World War II. Catalinas served wit ...

aircraft from the interior of Colombia to the river banks of the city.

Gustavo Rojas Pinilla Gustavo Rojas Pinilla (12 March 1900 – 17 January 1975) was a Colombian Army general, civil engineer and dictator who ruled as 19th President of Colombia as from June 1953 to May 1957. Rojas Pinilla gained prominence as a colonel during L ...

seeing the need to better connect the Amazon region of Colombia to Bogota ordered for an airport to be built. In 2015,

Juan Manuel Santos Juan Manuel Santos Calderón (; born 10 August 1951) is a Colombian politician who was the President of Colombia from 2010 to 2018. He was the sole recipient of the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize. An economist by profession and a journalist by trade, ...

, the then president of Colombia, announced an investment of over $142 billion Colombian pesos (or $42 million US dollars) to replace the existing facilities with brand new passenger and cargo terminals, control tower, parking and common areas, and access roadways. Construction was expected to conclude on November 30, 2018, however due to delays the new facilities are expected to be completed by June 2019. Two hundred international tourists were trapped in Leticia after the highly-contagious Brazilian variant of

COVID-19 virus Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2) is a strain of coronavirus that causes COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019), the respiratory illness responsible for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The virus previously had a p ...

was discovered in the city on January 28, 2021. Two weeks later the government agreed to fly the tourists out of the Alfredo Vásquez Cobo airport if the individuals were willing to pay. Regularly scheduled flights resumed on March 2.

Airlines and destinations

Statistics

Colonel Herbert Boy Air Base

Permanently stationed onsite is the ''Amazonas

Air Group A group is a military unit or a military formation that is most often associated with military aviation. Air and aviation groups The terms group and wing differ significantly from one country to another, as well as between different branches ...

'', of the

Colombian Air Force , "We are the Force" , colours = , colours_label = , march = Colombian Air Force Hymn , mascot = Capitan Paz , anniversaries = 8 November , ...

, which operates out of the ''Colonel Herbert Boy Air Base''. The air base shares the same runway with the airport and jointly manage other facilities.

Accidents

* On November 18, 2006, an

AeroSucre Aerosucre S.A. is a cargo airline based in Bogotá, Colombia. It began operation in 1969 and operates scheduled international and domestic cargo services throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. Its home base is El Dorado International Airpor ...

Boeing 727 The Boeing 727 is an American narrow-body airliner that was developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. After the heavy 707 quad-jet was introduced in 1958, Boeing addressed the demand for shorter flight lengths from smaller airpo ...

crashed during landing due to poor weather and fog against a television antenna with 40 meters of height. The three members of crew, as well as the three passengers, died in the accident.

References

External links

*
Leticia Airport
at

OpenStreetMap OpenStreetMap (OSM) is a free, open geographic database updated and maintained by a community of volunteers via open collaboration. Contributors collect data from surveys, trace from aerial imagery and also import from other freely licensed g ...

Leticia Airport
at OurAirports * * Airports in Colombia Buildings and structures in Amazonas Department {{Colombia-airport-stub