Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla Guadalajara International Airport

Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla Guadalajara International Airport, or simply Guadalajara International Airport , is the main international airport of Guadalajara, Jalisco, the third-largest city of Mexico. It is Latin America's ninth- and Mexico's third-busiest airport, after Mexico City and Cancún, and second-busiest for cargo flights. In 2021, it handled 12,243,000 passengers, and 15,606,600 in 2022, an increase of 30.6%.
Guadalajara's Airport is located 16 km south of the city center. It consists of two runways and one terminal. It is operated by GAP and serves as a hub for Volaris, functioning as the airline's primary gateway to the United States. It also serves as a hub for Aeromexico and Viva Aerobus. In addition, cargo flights are offered to countries in the Americas, Asia and Europe.
History
It was inaugurated on March 1, 1951, by then-president of Mexico, Miguel Alemán Valdés, and the governor of the state of Jalisco, José de Jesús González Gallo. The airport is named after Miguel Hidalgo, leader of the Mexican War of Independence.
On May 24, 1993, the airport parking lot was the scene of a deadly firefight between the Logan Heights Gang working for the Tijuana Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel. Seven people were killed including Catholic Archbishop Juan Jesús Posadas Ocampo.
In 2020, it was announced that the Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico group have invested around $14 billion pesos to build a new runway and terminal building, along with new facilities and improvements such as an expanded parking lot, a hotel, office block, and a solar-powered plant. Additionally, the airport aims to expand services to the United States as well as Europe. Expected to be completed by 2024, it is part of GAP's new expansion plan for its airports in the state of Jalisco, both Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta, and its total budget is $18 billion pesos. Aeroméxico introduced flights to Madrid on a Boeing 787 in December 2021. This is the Guadalajara airport's first nonstop link to Europe.
Terminals
Passenger terminal
The Passenger Terminal, or Terminal 1, is used by all airlines for international and domestic flights. The terminal has customs facilities. There are also 27 remote parking positions. It also has 12 jetways and 4 concourses:
Concourse A - Airside Walk-up gates A1 through A8
Concourse B - Jetway gates B10 through B13
Concourse C - Jetway gates C30 through C37
Concourse D - Lower level, Bus gates D40 through D50
Cargo terminal
The Cargo Terminal was recently expanded and has a capacity to store approximately 350,000 tons of goods annually in its 27,000 square meters. It has six positions that can handle any kind of major aircraft.
Airlines and destinations
Passenger
Cargo
Amenities
Restaurants
Burger King
California Pizza Kitchen
Carl's Jr.
Chili's
Corner Bar
De Volada Grab N' Go
El Quijote
Fronteras Bar
Guacamole Mexican Grill
Johnny Rockets
Krispy Kreme
La Pausa
Los Tres Amigos Tacos
Medas
Natural Break
Sbarro
Starbucks
Subway
Wings
Car rental
Avis
Enterprise
Hertz
Veico Car Rental
City Car Rental
Mex Rent A Car
Hotels
City Express Guadalajara Aeropuerto
Hampton Inn de Hilton Guadalajara-Aeropuerto
Hangar Inn
VIP lounges
Aeroméxico Salón Premier
Citibanamex Salón Beyond
VIP Lounge East
VIP Lounge West
Statistics
Passengers
Busiest routes
Notes
Local conflicts
The expansion projects have been delayed due to conflicts with the local residents. Also, several protests were made, blocking the parking lot access many times. These expansion projects include new and better access to the terminal, and it would take three years to build a second runway (including two years of land preparation and one to build the base and pave it). The locals argue that Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico has debts to the land where the airport sits on because of expropriation of land, which was taken from locals in 1975 to expand the airport. This terrain consists of the airport's polygon plus 320 hectares — of which 51 hectares will be used to build the second runway. Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico urged the Secretariat of Communications and Transportation to resolve the problems by delaying the airport's second runway construction. With this new runway and the expansion of the terminal building, the airport will be able to handle over 40 million passengers. If not negotiated the next step could be another expropriation to complete the project.
Accidents and incidents
On June 2, 1958, Aeronaves de México Flight 111, a Lockheed L-749A Constellation (registration XA-MEV), crashed into La Latilla Mountain, 16 kilometers (10 miles) from the airport, shortly after takeoff for a flight to Mexico City, after the airliner's crew failed to follow the established climb-out procedure for the airport after taking off. The crash killed all 45 people on board, and two prominent American scientists – oceanographer Townsend Cromwell and fisheries scientist Bell M. Shimada – were among the dead. It was the deadliest aviation accident in Mexican history at the time.
Aeroméxico Flight 498: On August 31, 1986 an Aeroméxico DC-9 that originated from Mexico City and stopped at Guadalajara, Loreto and Tijuana collided with a private aircraft while attempting to land at Los Angeles International Airport.
On May 24, 1993, Juan Jesús Posadas Ocampo, the Archbishop of Guadalajara, and six other people were killed in a shootout between rival drug cartels in the airport parking lot.
On September 16, 1998, Continental Flight 475, a Boeing 737-524 registered N20643. Departed Houston at 20:56 for an IFR flight to Guadalajara. After executing a missed approach on their first ILS approach to runway 28, the flight was vectored for a second approach to runway 28. The second approach was reported by both pilots to be uneventful; however, after touchdown, the aircraft drifted to the left side of the runway. The left main landing gear exited the hard surface of the runway approximately 2700 feet from the threshold and eventually, all 3 landing gears exited the 197-foot wide asphalt runway, and all the passengers survived.
See also
List of the busiest airports in Mexico
References
External links
Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico
AeropuertosMexico.com (in English)
FlightAware U.S. airport activity to/from: Don Miguel Hidalgo Y Costilla Int'l (MMGL)
A-Z World Airports: Don Miguel Hidalgo Airport (GDL/MMGL)
TAR Aerolineas
Airports in Jalisco
Airport