At the beginning of 2020, El Salvador’s Autonomous Port Executive Commission (CEPA by its Spanish initials) sought firms to conduct a feasibility study into the construction of an airport in the east of the country close to the port of La Unión, to be known as the Pacific Airport. Eleven firms were given 300 days to produce their studies and the results of these should be presented in November this year. The decision on which study to accept will be made public in September 2021.
The aim of the plan is to provide air transport connection to the east of the country and for this development to become a pole of economic development for this region of the country.
A marketing study is also seen as an important part of the presentation, to include estimates of the demand by both airlines and by passengers, the commercial demand and possible projections of air traffic in the region. Additionally the study should make recommendations about how the project should be executed, possibly by a public-private partnership.
CEPA President Federico Anliker has explained that four specific sites have been identified for the potential airport. He further outlined two major reasons why an airport is necessary: first, because more than 50 per cent of Salvadorans living in the east of the country have relatives in the United States and this represents a potential demand for air travel; second, an airport will help the east of the country to develop and promote a tourism industry there.
Sources
- Rosa María Pastrán, 10.03.20, ‘CEPA abre proceso para estudio de factibilidad de aeropuerto en el oriente de El Salvador’, La Prensa Gráfica, El Salvador
- Comisión Ejecutiva Portuaria Autónoma (CEPA): cepa.gob.sv
- Eddie Galdamez, 09.09.20, ‘The El Salvador Pacific Airport. A Project by Nayib Bukele’, El Salvador Info, elsalvadorinfo.net/el-salvador-pacific-airport/