This Saturday, April 9, Colombian aviation reached a milestone: after receiving a test landing of a commercial aircraft at the airport in the municipality of Paipa (Boyacá), commercial flights are virtually possible in all departments of the country.
This is an ATR-42, a model of airplane manufactured in France since the 1980s, with a capacity for approximately 42 passengers. In Colombia, this type of aircraft is operated by the Air Force, the state airline Satena and the low-cost company EasyFly. The plane that landed in Paipa is owned by the latter company.
The plane landed after ten o'clock in the morning on Saturday on the runway at Juan José Rondón Airport. This was what Fabio Medrano, the mayor of Paipa, said about the event through his Facebook account.
According to Mayor Medrano, the municipality has been working for two years to raise resources to expand the airstrip so that planes with a capacity of up to 70 passengers can reach. Until now, only charter flights had arrived at the Juan José Rondón track. It was also necessary to collect information from the terrain in order to establish an aerial topography and ensure comfortable and safe landings.
The president of Paipa still does not dare to ensure that commercial flights will reach the municipality of Boyacá immediately, because adjustments are still pending. For example, there is still a need to purchase a full-time fire engine and make locative repairs inside the airport.
The department of Boyacá has several airstrips. In fact, Gustavo Rojas Pinilla Airport in Tunja, its capital city, was one of the first air terminals opened in Colombia: the general who gave it its name ordered it to be built in 1953 and it opened in 1955.
However, Tunja airport lasted 40 years without operations due to the indifference of local leaders and external commercial pressures; perhaps, the same ones that promoted the collapse of the railway tracks.
In order to reopen Tunja airport today, according to Alejandro Mejía, Director of Investment and Trade at the Ministry of Business Development, “the size of the runway, which is now 1,000 meters long, will have to be tripled. The idea is to reach more than 3,500 meters, due to the height of the city.”
Alberto Lleras Camargo Airport, in Sogamoso, is currently operational and receives charter and cargo flights, although in the 80s it received commercial flights from the extinct Aces, from El Dorado Airport. “There are also tracks in Muzo, El Espino, Quipama and Puerto Boyacá for a total of seven in the department,” the official explained.
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