Tuxtla Gutiérrez International Airport

Tuxtla Gutiérrez International Airport (Aeropuerto Internacional de Tuxtla Gutiérrez), officially known as Aeropuerto Internacional Ángel Albino Corzo (Ángel Albino Corzo International Airport), is an international airport situated in the municipality of Chiapa de Corzo, Chiapas. It serves air traffic for Tuxtla Gutiérrez and a significant part of the State of Chiapas, including San Cristóbal de las Casas and Comitán.

The airport is operated by Grupo Aeroportuario de Chiapas, a government-owned corporation. It replaced the Francisco Sarabia National Airport, which is now exclusively used for military purposes. According to official statistics from the Civil Aviation Federal Agency (AFAC), the airport handled 1,590,178 passengers in 2022 and 1,784,010 in 2023, marking a 12.19% increase.

Earlier airports
The first commercial airport serving Tuxtla Gutiérrez was opened in 1957 in Terán, located to the west of the city. This small airport had limited capacity and technical constraints. In 1980, operations were relocated to the Llano San Juan airport in the neighboring municipality of Ocozocoautla. However, this new location faced challenges such as fog and wind conditions that made commercial aviation difficult. Various investments were made to address these issues, including the installation of radio systems and the construction of a second runway, but they proved unsuccessful. As a result, by the late 1990s, the old Terán Airport had to be temporarily used to carry out flight operations. The need for a third airport in Tuxtla Gutiérrez became more apparent in the early 2000s as the existing air infrastructure could not fully meet the city's growing commercial air traffic demands.

Initial operations
In 2006, the new Angel Albino Corzo Airport in Chiapa de Corzo was inaugurated. The investment for this project amounted to 825 million pesos (72.2 million dollars), with 49% of the funding coming from the federal government and 51% from the state government. With the commissioning of this new airport, the old Terán airport resumed its role as a military airbase, and the Llano San Juan airport ceased aviation operations completely.

The airport's official inauguration took place on June 27, 2006, with President Vicente Fox and the State's Governor Pablo Salazar Mendiguchía in attendance. The first commercial flight to land at the airport was Aviacsa's flight 234 from Tapachula, which used a Boeing 737-201/Adv aircraft with registration number XA-TVL. The first departure from the airport was on the same aircraft bound for Mexico City.

The airport was initially designed with the capacity to handle 350 daily operations and serve 850,000 passengers per year. It officially received its international airport status in 2008 and welcomed its first non-commercial international flight in September of the same year when the Canadian national football team arrived for a match against the Mexico national football team at the Víctor Manuel Reyna stadium.

Expansion
In November 2014, plans were announced to expand the airport with the aim of increasing the terminal's capacity from 80,000 to 140,000 passengers per month. In the following year, the airport achieved a significant milestone by welcoming its one-millionth passenger on board Interjet flight 2601, marking the first time in its history to reach this level of passenger traffic. The airport also made history by receiving the Mexican Air Force's Boeing 787-8 on August 7, 2017, which was the largest aircraft to land at the airport.

In 2020, the airport underwent a significant expansion, increasing its facilities by 140% to a total of 22,472 square meters. This expansion included the addition of commercial areas, four new points of contact, and a new apron.

In December 2023, the state government announced a new expansion of the facilities to handle the anticipated passenger growth. A new 6,000 square-meter wing will include a mezzanine, documentation counters, baggage documentation and reclaim area, restrooms, retail and airline space, and premises for health, immigration, and customs authorities. The expansion will also include a new short-haul bus terminal. Works are expected to be completed in 2024.

Additionally, a new air cargo terminal was inaugurated in February 2024. It has its own apron and taxiway, housing fiscal storage areas, a cold chamber, and spaces for companies specialized in air cargo. A second phase will include a 60-hectare industrial park, scheduled to be completed by July 2024.

Route development
Initially, only two airlines operated at this airport, offering flights to Mexico City: MexicanaClick, a subsidiary of Mexicana, and Aviacsa, which faced bankruptcy in 2009. In the same year, Interjet introduced a daily flight to Toluca, while Aeroméxico briefly provided three daily flights from Mexico City. Additionally, MexicanaLink introduced flights to Oaxaca, Guadalajara, and Mérida, while Mexicana took over its route to Mexico City. After Mexicana's bankruptcy in 2010, Aeroméxico decided to expedite the launch of its operations, offering five daily frequencies, with four of them operated by Boeing 737 aircraft and one using ERJ 145 aircraft. Simultaneously, Interjet redirected its flights from Toluca to Mexico City and increased the frequency to five daily flights.

Between 2010 and 2013, Continental Express (later United Express) operated flights to Houston. In 2010, Viva Aerobus initiated flights to Monterrey, Guadalajara, and Cancún. They expanded their services to Mexico City in 2016 and added Mérida and Puebla in 2018. In December 2012, Volaris launched the route to Mexico City, later extending to Guadalajara in 2013, Tijuana from 2013 to 2015, Monterrey from 2014 to 2017, and Cancún since 2015. TAR offered flights to Toluca and Mérida from 2014 to 2018, and Aeromar to Villahermosa, Mérida, and Oaxaca from 2016 to 2018. Calafia briefly served flights to Palenque and Puebla in 2018. The regional airline Aerus launched services to Villahermosa in October 2023, but withdrew the service two months later.

Currently, the airport is connected to eight regular destinations in Mexico and one in Central America, served by five commercial airlines. Volaris introduced new flights to Mexicali and León/El Bajío in July 2023, and Viva Aerobus commenced flights to the new Felipe Ángeles airport in Mexico City in April 2024.

Facilities
The airport is located at an elevation of 457 m above mean sea level and covers an area of 740 ha. It includes a 2500 m concrete runway, a parallel taxiway, a passenger terminal for commercial aviation, a general aviation apron, multiple hangars, and a military base.

The passenger terminal is a two-story structure with a total area of 22472 m2, designed to separate departure and arrival areas on different levels. The upper floor houses check-in counters, a security checkpoint, and a departure pier with eight gates equipped with fixed jet bridges. Two of these gates are capable of accommodating large aircraft like the Boeing 767 and the Airbus A330.

The lower level serves arriving passengers and features immigration and customs facilities for international travelers, baggage claim areas, and an arrivals hall. The airport also offers a restaurant, a VIP lounge, a café, a snack kiosk, various retail stores, ATMs, wireless internet access, and facilities designed to cater to individuals with disabilities.