Ernesto Cortissoz International Airport
Facts on BAQ
Before Cortissoz opened, the older Soledad International Airport on the same grounds was SCADTA's main domestic hub; Pan American Airways ran scheduled DC-3s from there to Panama City, Kingston and Miami, and by 1946 Avianca DC-4s reached New York.
Source: Wikipedia
The airport is named for Ernesto Cortissoz Álvarez-Correa, a Barranquilla-born entrepreneur who, in December 1919, co-founded SCADTA alongside four other Colombians and three Germans — one of the world's earliest commercial airlines and the ancestor of today's Avianca.
Source: Wikipedia
Cortissoz, the airport's namesake, died on 8 June 1924 in a Junkers F.13 crash, one of Colombia's first plane crashes, while traveling with fellow SCADTA executives. Barranquilla's new airport was dedicated in his honor on 7 April 1981 by Colombian president Julio César Turbay.
Source: Wikipedia
In 1946, British South American Airways flew a once-weekly Lancastrian service from Barranquilla to London via Bermuda, nicknamed 'The Lightning Route to Europe' despite the trip taking 26 hours.
Source: Wikipedia
In the early 1950s, engineers at the old Soledad Airport built a system of electric, rail-mounted carts flush with the runway to move parked DC-4s sideways for loading and unloading, a setup said to have cut turnaround time by half.
Source: Wikipedia
Cortissoz can handle widebody jets including the Boeing 747, 767 and Airbus A350 on its 3,000-by-45-metre runway, and remains Colombia's leading cargo airport even though it now ranks only fifth nationally for passenger traffic.
Source: Wikipedia
In July 2007, Colombia's civil aviation authority granted Cortissoz an 'open skies' designation, meaning any airline in the world could fly there on any route at any frequency, a move meant to promote Barranquilla as a Caribbean gateway.
Source: Wikipedia
The airport sits in the municipality of Soledad, about 12 km from downtown Barranquilla, and for decades was Colombia's premier international gateway before El Dorado overtook it after opening in Bogotá in December 1959.
Source: Wikipedia