page_title: Rafael Núñez International Airport
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Rafael Núñez International Airport / History
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: SVP, rendez cette description accessible à tous en la traduisant dans plusieurs langues. English: Please, have this description accessible to all by translating it in different languages. Français&#160;: Aéroport International Rafael Núñez à Carthagène des Indes, Colombie English: Cartagena’s Rafael Núñez International Airport, Colombia
context_page_description: Rafael Núñez International Airport is an airport serving the Caribbean port city of Cartagena, Colombia. It is the largest airport in the country's northern Caribbean region in terms of passenger movement.
  It is located between the Caribbean coast and the Ciénaga de la Virgen marsh, in the center of Crespo, a neighborhood in northern Cartagena.
  It is named after Rafael Núñez, the former Colombian president who wrote the verses to the National Anthem of Colombia.
  The airport has been managed since 1996 by the Sociedad Aeropuertos del Caribe S.A., a Colombian company that has the experience and technology of its partner operator AENA Spain.
  Airlines including Air Canada Rouge, Air Panama, Air Transat, American Airlines, Avianca, Copa Airlines, Delta Air Lines, EasyFly, Interjet, JetBlue, LATAM Colombia, LATAM Perú, Spirit Airlines, VivaColombia, and Wingo have international flights from this airport to various cities in North, Central and South America. KLM have flights to Amsterdam, Netherlands.
  The Cartagena VOR-DME is located 14.0 nautical miles south of the airport. The Cartagena non-directional beacon is located 2.9 nautical miles south of the airport.
context_section_description: The first aerial activity in began in late 1919 when businessmen Nemesio de la Espriella of Cartagena and Guillermo Echavarria of Antioquía began negotiations to acquire a Farman F-40 aircraft made in France. The aircraft arrived by ship disassembled and packed in boxes. They soon began building a makeshift hangar at Bocagrande, which was then an area of mangroves and a few vacation houses. A few years later they built a stunning Caribbean hotel. This was the beginning of the "Colombian Air Navigation Company".
  The first flight took place on February 14, 1920, when pilot Jourdanet Jacques René Bazin flew the plane "Cartagena" around the city, carrying as passengers Guillermo Echavarria Martinez Martelo Tulita and the Queen of Carnival. Eight days later a mail flight was made to the city of Barranquilla, marking the beginning of commercial aviation activity in the country.
  In 1930 the SCADTA built another airfield on the island of Manzanillo. By 1940 the company had become Avianca and continued operating from Manzanillo to various domestic destinations.
  It was in mid-1946 when TACA de Colombia established a subsidiary called Colombian Aerodromes Company (ECA), dedicated to the construction and maintenance of airfields, to provide technical maintenance for aircraft company property, and to compete with Avianca. Until the mid-fifties when airports were acquired by the State, Avianca never authorized the use of its airports by other airlines, and each business had to build its own facilities in the cities where it intended to operate.
  In December 1946 Crespo Air Field was inaugurated with great pomp in Cartagena, which had been built by that subsidiary airport. Plans for the TACA de Colombia was to make the new aerodrome in the distribution center operations TACA group companies and eventually operate international flights to Panama, Costa Rica, Venezuela, and the United States, without interfering with operations Avianca and Pan American from the airport in Barranquilla, Soledad, and offering a healthy competition. With the suspension of operations of the company TACA de Colombia in April 1947, these plans were cut short. Crespo airport passed to LANSA company, already operating at the terminal since November 1946. LANSA airfield became famous during the festivities Crespo when novembrinas and the National Queen of Beauty, received the famous "real flights" to carry the candidates and their retinues, which were covered with widely deployed by major media in the country.
  In 1979, Cartagena had 99 flights a week, 55 of which were shared flights, domestic and international flights were only 44 for the city. This flow was insufficient to meet the needs of the new hotel offering 7000 beds. In 1980 he organized the First Symposium for the Development of the City and the concerns raised and managed the tasks for the national government to end the redevelopment of the airport. And for 1982 was opened the new passenger terminal and extended runway to 2,600 feet, with his resurfacing and navigational aids valued at $1.4 million. They built a berm of 15 feet, as well as a neighboring gutter to the runway and extended the platform. In addition, he built a waiting bay at the head of the track 3-6 for three aircraft, enabling the facilitation of air operations. It was concluded the perimeter wall and Juan Cano Angola and built houses for the monitoring of the safety zone. At the end of the year before had given the new parking service for 250 private cars, 14 positions for tour buses 120 and an additional area for taxis and the access roads to the city. With the new facilities are expected to contribute to the growth of tourism in the city, while private investment was devoted to the recovery of the walled city with its old houses, real colonial relics.
  During 1993 and 1994 in developing the principles established in the new Constitution of 1991 to improve governance, the Law 105 of 1993 and the national government of President César Gaviria, by Decree 1647 of 994, arranged decentralization airports by the Civil Aeronautics and set the p
caption: Control tower
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