El Tepual International Airport
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El Tepual International Airport is a commercial and private aviation facility which serves the
tourist Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism mo ...
area of
Puerto Montt Puerto Montt (Mapuche: Meli Pulli) is a port city and commune in southern Chile, located at the northern end of the Reloncaví Sound in the Llanquihue Province, Los Lagos Region, 1,055 km to the south of the capital, Santiago. The commune spa ...
, Chile. It is one of the most important airports in Chile and is considered a gateway to the Chilean Patagonia.


History

Located at the center of Northern Patagonia and near the Archaeological site of Monte Verde. The construction of the runway at El Tepual airport was completed in April 1960, and became the site of a great airlift after the a magnitude 9.5 earthquake hit the area on 22 May 1960. The airport with its original terminal was officially inaugurated in 1963. After Augusto Pinochet left Chile's Presidency, a plan was put underway by the new government to make new airport terminals and freeways across the country, so that Chile's smaller cities could have better connections with
Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...
. Puerto Montt, along with Calama and other small areas, were among the most benefitted places out of the number of Chilean cities listed on the project. During the early 1990s, the numbers of international tourists (specially those from neighboring countries such as
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and
Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
) grew considerably. In 1995, the new airport terminal finally opened, with
Lan Chile LATAM Airlines Chile (formerly LAN Airlines and LAN-Chile) is an airline based in Santiago, Chile, one of the founders of LATAM Airlines Group, Latin America's largest airline holding company. The main hub is Arturo Merino Benítez Internationa ...
as the largest airline company flying there. LATAM Chile has been flying for many decades to Puerto Montt. Other carriers that fly to Puerto Montt are SKY Airline and
JetSMART JetSmart Airlines SpA, stylized as JetSMART, is a South American ultra low-cost carrier created by US investment fund (and co-founder of LBM Fermin Ithuralde) Indigo Partners, which also controls low-cost carriers like US airline Frontier Airli ...
. ''El Tepual'' is owned by a number of international companies, headed by Chile's IDC, or ''Administracion de Concesiones''. In 1998, IDC agreed to operate the airport for twelve more years, which would make ''El Tepual'' their property until 2010. A new terminal was inaugurated in February 2010, having increased the number of jetways from 2 to 5, as well as improving the check-in area, baggage claim, airport security, heating system and other airport facilities as well as significantly enlarging the parking lot. By the mid 2020s, a new, parallel runway should be operative.


Facilities

The airport has five jetways (also called ''airplane tunnel''), 4 domestic gates (numbered 1–4) and one international gate (gate number 5, still not in operation and still used for domestic). The airport has a restaurant, a massage facility, immigration offices and areas for disabled persons, among other facilities.


Capability

''El Tepual'' airport can only cater to airplanes with the size of a
Boeing 707 The Boeing 707 is an American, long-range, narrow-body airliner, the first jetliner developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Developed from the Boeing 367-80 prototype first flown in 1954, the initial first flew on December 20, ...
or smaller.
Boeing 737 The Boeing 737 is a narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Renton Factory in Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retains the 707 fuselage width and six abreast seating with two un ...
s,
Airbus A318 Airbus SE (; ; ; ) is a European multinational aerospace corporation. Airbus designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace products worldwide and manufactures aircraft throughout the world. The company has three divisions: '' ...
s, Airbus A319s,
Airbus A320 The Airbus A320 family is a series of Narrow-body aircraft, narrow-body airliners developed and produced by Airbus. The A320 was launched in March 1984, Maiden flight, first flew on 22 February 1987, and was introduced in April 1988 by Air F ...
s and
Airbus A321 The Airbus A321 is a member of the Airbus A320 family of short to medium range, narrow-body, commercial passenger twin engine jet airliners; it carries 185 to 236 passengers. It has a stretched fuselage which was the first derivative of the ba ...
s are particularly prominent among airplanes that fly to the airport. In 2004, the IDC estimated that one million passengers passed through the airport's gates, making it Chile's second busiest. At the time, IDC expected that total to rise to four million passengers by 2010. Among the airport's cargo operations, the largest aircraft the airport has seen is the
Boeing 777F The Boeing 777, commonly referred to as the Triple Seven, is an American long-range wide-body airliner developed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. It is the world's largest twinjet. The 777 was designed to bridge the gap bet ...
.


Airlines and destinations


Charter operations

A large number of different airlines operate off-regular schedule service into ''El Tepual''. These are usually hired by tour agents or companies. These include such airlines as ATS Aerotaxis del Sur, Archipiélagos Aviación, AeroCord, Raúl Atala EIRL, Transportes Aéreos San Rafael and Pewén among others.


Accidents and incidents

*On 5 December 1969, Douglas C-47A CC-CBY of
LAN Chile LATAM Airlines Chile (formerly LAN Airlines and LAN-Chile) is an airline based in Santiago, Chile, one of the founders of LATAM Airlines Group, Latin America's largest airline holding company. The main hub is Arturo Merino Benítez Internationa ...
crashed on take-off. The aircraft was operating a cargo flight, all three people on board survived.


References


External links


IDC's information page, in Spanish
**

{{authority control Airports in Chile Airports in Los Lagos Region Puerto Montt