El Tepual Airport

Infobox Airport
name = El Tepual Airport
nativename = Concesión Aeropuerto El Tepual S.A.
nativename-a =
nativename-r =


image-width =
caption =
IATA = PMC
ICAO = SCTE
type = Military/Public
owner =
operator = IDC
city-served =
location = Puerto Montt
elevation-f = 294
elevation-m = 90
coordinates = Coord|41|26|19|S|73|05|38|W|type:airport|display=inline,title
website =
metric-elev =
metric-rwy =
r1-number = 17/35
r1-length-f = 8,694
r1-length-m = 2,650
r1-surface = Concrete
stat-year =
stat1-header =
stat1-data =
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stat2-data =
footnotes =

Concesión Aeropuerto El Tepual S.A. Airport codes|PMC|SCTE better known to the public as Tepual Airport, is a commercial and private aviation facility which serves the touristic area of Puerto Montt, Chile.

History

The construction of the runway at El Tepual airport was completed in April 1960, and became the site of a great airlift after the a magnitude 9.5 earthquake hit the area on May 22, 1960. The airport with its original terminal was officially inaugurated in 1963. After Augusto Pinochet left Chile's Presidency, a plan was put on the run by the new government to make new airport terminals and freeways across the country, so that Chile's smaller cities could have better connections with Santiago. Puerto Montt, along with Calama and other small areas, were among the most benefitted places out of the number of Chilean cities listed on the project.

Puerto Montt had proved to be a popular tourist resort, and, during the early 1990s, the numbers of international tourists (specially those from neighboring countries such as Argentina and Brazil) grew considerably. In 1995, the new airport terminal finally opened, with Lan Chile as the largest airline company flying there.

LAN Airlines, as Lan Chile is currently known, has kept on operating services regularly at the airport along with more recent startups such as Sky Airline and Air Comet, with a number of charter airlines also flying to "El Tepual".

"El Tepual" is owned by a number of international companies, headed by Chile's IDC,or "Administracion de Concesiones". In 1998, IDC agreed to operate the airport for twelve more years, which would make "El Tepual" their property until 2010.

Facilities

"El Tepual" is one of a large number of jetports in South America that still has some passengers walk on the runway, step on airplane stairs and get into the airliner. This is possible because "El Tepual" handles light traffic numbers and having passengers walking on to or off from their airplane onto the runway does not present much risk to "El Tepual" passengers. The airport does have two jetways (also called "airplane tunnel") as well.

The airport has a restaurant, a massage facility, immigration offices and areas for disabled persons, among other facilities.

Capability

"El Tepual" airport can only cater to airplanes the size of a Boeing 707 or smaller. Boeing 737s, Airbus 319s and Airbus 320s are particularly prominent among airplanes that fly to the airport.

In 2004, the IDC estimated that one million passengers passed through the airport's gates, making it Chile's second busiest. IDC expects that total to rise to four million passengers by 2010.

Airlines

*LAN Airlines
*Sky Airline
*Air Comet

Charter operations

A large number of different airlines operate off-regular schedule service into "El Tepual". These are usually hired by tour agents or companies. These include such airlines as AndesAero, Aeropuelche, ATS Aerotaxis del Sur, Archipiélagos Aviacion, Patagonia Airlines, Dolphin Air.

External links

* [http://idc-concesiones.cl IDC's information page, in Spanish]
*
** WAD|SCTE
** [http://azworldairports.com/airports/p1350pmc.htm azworldairports.com's El Tepual information page]