The executive president of Colombian airline AviancaTaca said Tuesday that the currently under-construction Eldorado International Airport in Bogota is going to be too small for the capital, reported Caracol Radio.
Executive President Fabio Villegas said “we are all in agreement that the airport is too small for the city,” arguing that the problem needs to be addressed as soon as possible.
Villegas claims that the airport will be insufficient in size and capability compared to the ongoing developmental success of the country. He said, “I am not making these comments in a negative light, rather it is the result of success in the growth of the [tourism] sector, the Colombian economy, international integration, and the development of the airline industry in the country.”
Villegas had previously stated that although the airport is capable of handling up to 16 million passangers a year, it is in fact receiving close to 20 million.
In an interview with La Semana, Villegas argued that if the volume of passengers at Eldorado continues to grow the way it has been in recent years, they will be seeing double the number of passengers in ten years time. AviancaTaca’s executive president argued that there simply would not be anywhere to put the new passengers, saying that “the density is unacceptable in the airport in a city like Bogota.”
Eldorado is currently undergoing a massive modernization project that is scheduled for completion in 2014.