The new Palmerola International Airport, whose Construction in the central region of Honduras partially financed by Spain, started this Saturday (11.12.2021) operations with a flight from the United States of the company Spirit Airlines.
Passengers arrive early
Dozens of passengers arrived early today at Palmerola to get their low-cost tickets to Miami and Houston, and to see the facilities of the international airport, located in the central department of Comayagua, the country's capital, founded by the Spanish.
"I woke up earlier than usual because I wanted to come and see the airport. My wife and I had the goal of opening Palmerola Airport," said Honduran Roberto Sierra, one of the first passengers to check in at the Spirit Airlines station.
Sierra and his wife were the first passengers to use the services of the new airport terminal using the code XPL, and to take advantage of Spirit's special promotion that offered round-trip tickets for $149, Emco said.
Low-cost flights are a reality in Honduras thanks to the Cheap Tickets Law promoted by Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández to encourage tourism in the Central American country.
The Palmerola works were partially financed by Spain with 53 million dollars as part of a debt conversion program with Honduras, while 23 million were contributed by the Honduran government.
The new airport will operate 24 hours a day, with 11 gates, 4 of which are remote, and a runway of almost 2.500 meters, according to Emco.
Airlines to move operations
Panamanian airline Copa Airlines will begin operations at Palmerola International Airport on December 15, the Honduran Presidency announced.
International airlines operating at Toncontín Airport in Tegucigalpa, where landing planes lose several meters of their 1.900-meter runway due to the difficult approach to the southern end of the runway, which is close to a hilly area, will move their operations to Palmerola this December.
La The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced that it has recognized Palmerola as the new airport for the metropolitan area of Tegucigalpa. By resolution 763, section 1.6.3, IATA accepted that Palmerola is the new airport for Tegucigalpa.
Palmerola was put out to tender in 2015 during Hernández's first term in office through a Public-Private Partnership and was awarded to the consortium formed by Emco and the international operator from Munich, which invested some 87 million dollars in the contract for a period of 30 years.
The consortium in charge projects that Palmerola can receive 1,7 million passengers per year, compared to the 290.000 that Toncontín received in 2019.
The project, which includes a 39.000-square-meter runway, according to Emco, is located on the same site as a Honduran Air Force base built by the United States in the early 80s.
Source: Reuters
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