Honduras: Palmerola denies interest in weakening San Pedro Sula airport
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A particular airport «confrontation» is taking place in Honduras after the recent opening of the new Palmerola International Airport, which serves Tegucigalpa, within the framework of a Presidential transition that also has its own particular condiments, with the election of Xiomara Castro, who is Manuel Zelaya’s wife, who was deposed as President in 2009.
A group of businessmen and politicians from northern Honduras warned that they are looking to «weaken» the Ramón Villeda Morales International Airport (SAP) in San Pedro Sula, so far the country’s main air gateway, in order to favor Palmerola. In 2019, SAP mobilized 1.2 million passengers compared to 800 thousand at Toncontín, the former international terminal of the Honduran capital.
As detailed by local media, personnel working at the San Pedro Sula airport was transferred to Palmerola, while some managers quit becoming part of the EMCO Group, the concessionaire of the airport.
«There is an intention to undermine the airport and we are denouncing it. The Chamber and other institutions are working to confront this threat because we cannot permit it,» Eduardo Facussé, president of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Cortés, the department in which San Pedro Sula is located, told La Prensa.
The administration of Palmerola International Airport quickly denied this information, assuring that there is «not the least interest or intention to close or leave without international flights the Ramón Villeda Morales Airport, an air terminal that, as we have already expressed in the past, is essential for the northern zone and the country’s economy. Our success does not depend in any way on the situation of that airport, which serves an area of influence totally different from ours».
They also denied the intention of receiving the operation of the San Pedro Sula airport without a bidding process, although if appropriate, they will evaluate the conditions to decide whether to participate or not.
Lastly, they assured that it is false that the Villeda Morales airport is being debilitated by hiring its personnel, given that «Palmerola, together with Munich Airport International, has had for a long time first-class qualified professionals, both local and foreign, who have been working at the airport since its construction until its current start-up».
Palmerola International Airport (XPL) was inaugurated last December 11 after an investment of more than USD 200 million carried out by the Honduran German consortium EMCO-Flughafen München.
It is located in an area of the José Enrique Soto Cano Air Base, headquarters of the U.S. Joint Task Force Bravo, 6 kilometers south of the city of Comayagua, 70 kilometers north of Tegucigalpa.
It is intended to function 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 opening of the airport was not free of controversy, since that same day, President-elect Xiomara Castro said that «monopolies are constitutionally prohibited and detrimental 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».
In any case, many international companies have already been transferring their flights to Palmerola, such as United, American, Copa, and Avianca.
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