Bogota’s El Dorado International Airport is set to open a new terminal later this year, announced Colombian Transport Minister German Cardona.
The new 275,000 square feet space will serve as El Dorado’s international terminal until two concourses intended for domestic travel are completed. The current main terminal along with Avianca’s existing domestic facilities will then be shut down.
When asked about the project in 2010, El Dorado’s chief operating officer Ralf Etzold said “the new terminal will make a massive difference to passenger satisfaction levels, the quality of service we are able to provide and operational efficiency as the main facility we use today was built in 1951, and although there have been a lot of improvements since then, it has basically outlived its time,”
Opain, an association composed of Colombian construction and engineering firms, is implementing the project with financing from Latin American development bank CAF, which approved a $50 million loan for the terminal in January. When construction ends in June of this year, Opain will have invested nearly $1.1 billon into the project.
This renovation is part of a 30-year development strategy the government has for El Dorado.
El Dorado is the largest Latin American airport in terms of cargo. In 2011 the airport handled 648,000 tons of shipped goods.