Cartagena To Get A New Airport With 11 Million Passengers Capacity , 4.5 Billion Pesos Is The Estimate.

• With an estimate of 4.5 billion pesos, the new Cartagena airport is planned to be built on an area of 864 hectares.
• Location will be near the township of Bayunca, north of Cartagena, between the La Cordialidad highway and the Via del Mar.
• Its design includes two runways and the works of this megaproject would be executed in 6 and 7 years.
• It is estimated to open in 2033 and in its first phase it will be able to serve 11 million passengers per year and at the end of the concession, about 45 million.

Month of December 2023 saw two big announcements for Cartagena related to the city's air transport. First was, the signing of the contract for the expansion of the city's current airport, Rafael Núñez; and the second, the announcement by the National Infrastructure Agency (ANI), that the city's new air terminal, which will be built in the vicinity of Bayunca.

The 19th January 2024 development indicates that the construction project for the new Cartagena international airport in the township of Bayunca is progressing at a good pace and as things are going, it could be awarded at the end of 2025 or the beginning of 2026, as per Mauricio Ossa, president of the company Odinsa, one of the partners of that private initiative.

The mayor of Cartagena Dumek Turbay, members of his cabinet, community leaders of the city and representatives of the government of Bolívar attended the presentation of the project.

The development of new capacity and expansion are very much due as Rafael Núñez Airport is now considered the third most important airport in Colombia, after Bogota's El Dorado and José María Córdova's Rionegro Airport (Antioquia), which serves Medellín.

The expansion of the Rafael Núñez airport would allow it to serve more than 8 million passengers annually. In 2022, the terminal mobilized 7.2 million passengers and for this year the estimate is that it will move more than 6.3 million.

"The new Cartagena airport delivered the pre-feasibility stage in November last year and at this time we are starting the stage in which the National Infrastructure Agency, ANI, hires the evaluator who is the one who will determine if everything delivered is completely in order. "

"The award is a management of the national government, through the ANI, which is very interested in this being as soon as possible, if one looks at the schedules, this could be happening in the year 2025 or 2026," said the spokesperson of the Odinsa firm.

The estimated value of the investment in the new Cartagena airport is 4.5 billion pesos, it would be built on a lot of 864 hectares, between the La Cordialidad highway and the Vía al Mar, in the township of Bayunca, its design would include two runways and the construction work could take 6 to 7 years.

It is estimated that it will be able to start operations in 2033 and in its first phase it will be able to serve 11 million passengers per year and at the end of the concession, about 45 million. The estimated investment in this project is 4.5 billion pesos.

The entire technical and legal team of the National Infrastructure Agency (ANI) will visit today the area where the new Cartagena airport is planned to be built, near the township of Bayunca.

The visit will also be attended by representatives of the company that originated this project, Odinsa Airports, to synchronize the timing of the current investments of the Rafael Núñez Airport and the future investments of the new airport, so that the demand of passengers can be met without trauma in the city, says the ANI.

The construction of the new air terminal would generate around 37 thousand jobs, which would generate many job opportunities for the people of the area, it will operate with renewable energies.

The acting president of the ANI, Carolina Barbanti, recalled that this project has been in the works for 10 years and highlighted the transparency of the process that allowed the expansion and remodeling of the Cartagena airport to be awarded.

"We are going to do a total transformation of the airport... our commitment is total to Cartagena and its projects" in a clear allusion to the Rafael Núñez project, the construction of the new airport in Bayunca and the works of the Canal del Dique.

The main promoters of this airport megaproject are: Odinsa, a company of the Argos Group; Macquarie, an Australian private investment fund operator and Conecta Caribe, a Cartagena firm with investments in the hotel and real estate sector. There are also Novus Civitas and Cartagenera de Desarrollo.