Honduras: historic inauguration of Palmerola International Airport

Great moments of emotion and excitement were experienced yesterday, Saturday, at the Palmerola International Airport (XPL) when the first scheduled flights landed within minutes of each other, which marked the official inauguration of commercial operations at the airport’s facilities.

At 1:45 p.m., Spirit Airlines flight NK1314 landed from Houston, operated by Airbus A319, registration N535NK, which went down in history as the first arrival at Palmerola.

Half an hour later, at 2:15 p.m., Airbus A320neo registration N924NK, also from Spirit Airlines, operated by flight NK3174 from Miami, landed.

“Let’s feel proud of ourselves because today we have one of the best airports in the region, equipped with a great deal of technology,” commented Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández. “This is a special day for Honduras. We said it and we did it: Palmerola is a reality and above all, it is good for the economy of the Honduran people”, in reference to the arrival of low-cost airlines to Palmerola and to the Cheap Airfares Law promoted by his administration.

Carmelo Martelo, the representative of Spirit, affirmed that “this is an airport that offers all the comforts, all the operational security and one that does not envy anything to any other airport in the world. Building an airport of this size has a great socio-economic impact. I believe that Hondurans should be proud of this airport.

Palmerola International Airport was developed on part of the space occupied by the José Enrique Soto Cano Air Base, headquarters of the U.S. Joint Task Force Bravo, located 6 kilometers south of the city of Comayagua, about 70 kilometers north of Tegucigalpa.

Its purpose is to serve as the main international gateway by air to the Honduran capital, thus replacing the current Toncontín airport, which will serve only domestic and regional flights, given its operational limitations.

The new passenger terminal has a covered area of almost 40,000 square meters on three levels and has 13 boarding gates (7 with handles and 6 for remote positions), 40 check-in counters, 17 self-check-in stations, 34 immigration control stations, and 45 commercial locations.

The commercial platform has a surface area of 35,192 square meters and can handle 13 aircraft simultaneously.

One key objective of the project is to develop the cargo operation, for which a cargo terminal of 3,000 square meters with cold chain technology is being built.

The project, which involved an investment of over US$200 million, was carried out by the German-Honduran consortium EMCO-Flughafen München, which also operates Toncontín airport.

The 2,440-meter long runway was conditioned for larger aircraft operations, including wide-body aircraft. It is equipped with an instrument landing system (ILS), improving safety and consistency in low visibility conditions. In contrast to the runway at Toncontín airport, the new runway can be extended in the future.

Several airlines, Spirit, Copa Airlines, and Aeromexico, have already announced plans to operate at Palmerola.

However, one shadow looms over the joint airport project for the metropolitan area of Tegucigalpa by Grupo EMCO, and that is that the newly elected president of Honduras, Xiomara Castro de Zelaya, declared yesterday through her Twitter account that “monopolies are constitutionally prohibited and harmful to the national interest. Palmerola is an illegal contract and a monopoly that closes Toncontin affecting the people who gave me their mandate to defend it. This contract eliminates competition and will be reviewed and modified by law”.