Simón Bolívar International Airport

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Simón Bolívar International Airport

IATA: CCS - ICAO: SVMI
Summary
Airport type		Public
Operator		Instituto Autónomo del Aeropuerto Internacional de Maiquetía
Serves		Caracas
Elevation AMSL		235 ft (72 m)
Coordinates		10°36′11″N, 066°59′26″W
Runways
Direction	Length		Surface
Direction	ft	m	Surface
10/28	11,483	3,500	Asphalt
09/27	9,930	3,027	Asphalt

Simón Bolívar International Airport (IATA: CCS, ICAO: SVMI), also known as Maiquetia International Airport (Spanish: Aeropuerto Internacional de Maiquetia Simón Bolívar), is located in Maiquetía, Venezuela, about 13 miles from Downtown Caracas, the capital of Venezuela.

Simply called 'Maiquetia' by the local population, this is the most important airport of the twelve international airports in Venezuela. The Simon Bolivar Airport is the main hub for Aeropostal. Since 1960, it had been the main hub for VIASA, Venezuela's former flag carrier that went into bankruptcy in 1997.

It handles flights to many important cities in the Americas, the Caribbean and Europe.

Since 2000, the Simon Bolivar Airport has been undergoing major changes in order to meet international standards and to improve passenger traffic, security, immigration areas and customs areas. Security measures have become top priority since the 9/11 events, and now departure areas and arrival areas are completely split into the lower and upper levels of the airport. An on-site hotel is currently being built and is expected to open by the end of 2007.

The airport received 7.079.634 passengers in 2005.

1 Airlines and terminals
2 Previous Routes
3 Notes
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Airlines and terminals

[edit] International terminal

Aerolíneas Argentinas (Bogotá, Buenos Aires-Ezeiza)
Aeropostal (Aruba, Bogotá-El Dorado, Curaçao, Havana, Lima, Medellin, Miami, Port-of-Spain, Puerto Plata, Santo Domingo)
Air Canada (Toronto-Pearson)
Air Europa (Madrid)
Air France (Paris-Charles de Gaulle)
Alitalia (Milan-Malpensa, Rome-Fiumicino)
American Airlines (Dallas/Fort Worth, Miami, New York-JFK, San Juan)
Aserca Airlines (Aruba, Curaçao, Punta Cana, Santo Domingo)
Avianca (Bogotá)
Avior Airlines (Aruba, Curaçao, Fort-de-France)
Continental Airlines (Houston-Intercontinental)
Copa Airlines (Panama City)
Cubana de Aviación (Havana)
Delta Air Lines (Atlanta)
Iberia (Madrid)
Iran Air (Damascus, Tehran-Mehrabad)
LAN Airlines (Lima, Miami)
- LAN Peru (Lima)
Lloyd Aereo Boliviano (Bogota, Santa Cruz de la Sierra)
Lufthansa (Frankfurt)
Mexicana (Mexico City)
Santa Barbara Airlines (Aruba, Funchal, Guayaquil, Madrid, Miami, Quito, Tenerife-North)
Spirit Airlines (Fort Lauderdale) [begins April 7, 2007]
TACA
- Lacsa (Mexico City, San José (CR))
- TACA Peru (Lima)
TAP Portugal (Funchal, Lisbon, Porto)
Varig (Manaus, São Paulo-Guarulhos)

[edit] Domestic terminal

View of Simón Bolívar International Airport from the Domestic Terminal. A few local airliners can be seen

Aeropostal (Barcelona, Barquisimeto, Maracaibo, Maturín, Porlamar, Puerto Ordaz, San Antonio del Táchira)
Aserca Airlines (Barcelona, Barquisimeto, Maracaibo, Maturín, Porlamar, Puerto Ordaz, San Antonio del Táchira, Valencia)
Avior Airlines (Acarigua, Barcelona, Barinas, Barquisimeto, Canaima, Carúpano, Coro, Cumaná, Maracaibo, Mérida, Porlamar, Puerto Ordaz, San Tomé, Valencia, Valera)
Conviasa (Barinas, Ciudad Bolívar, Las Piedras, Los Roques, Maturín, Porlamar, Puerto Ayacucho, El Vigía)
LASER (Porlamar)
Rutaca (Ciudad Bolívar, Porlamar, Puerto Ordaz, San Antonio del Táchira)
Santa Bárbara Airlines (Barquisimeto, Las Piedras, Maracaibo, Mérida, San Antonio del Táchira, Valencia)
Venezolana (Cumaná, Maracaibo)

[edit] Auxiliary terminal

Aero Ejecutivos (Canaima, El Yavi, Los Roques)
Aerotuy (Canaima, Los Roques, La Blanquilla, Delta del Orinoco)
Sol America (Los Roques, Valencia)

[edit] Previous Routes

Aeroperu (Lima) (Ceased Operation on March 10, 1999)
Air Madrid (Madrid) (Suspended Operations on December 15, 2006)
British Airways (London-Heathrow)(Suspended on February 6, 2005 due to poor loads)
Eastern Airlines (Miami) (Transfered to American Airlines in 1990)
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (Amsterdam) (Now Codeshares with Air France)
Pan Am (Miami) (Ceased Operations on December 4, 1991)
United Airlines (Miami) (Service Ceased on January 7, 2003)
Viasa (Buenos Aires-Ezeiza, Bogota, Guayaquil, Houston, Lima, Miami, Quito, Rio De Janaiero, Sao Paulo, Santiago de Chile, San Juan) (Ceased Operation on January 1997)

[edit] Notes

On January 5th 2006, Venezuelan authorities closed the main access road between Caracas and Maiquetia-Simon Bolivar International Airport due to a bridge failure (which entirely collapsed on March 19th). Officials are working on a brand-new bridge to fully reestablish the road connection and plan to have it constructed by the second half of 2007. In the meantime, a 1.5-mile two-lane road has been paved to go around the fallen structure. Because of the aforesaid, travel time by car is increased up to 90 minutes during rush hour.

Since February 23rd 2006, Venezuelan civil aviation authorities had been in talks with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to settle a dispute with the US over limitations for Venezuelan carriers, which were imposed in 1995. Consequently, local carriers lost 90% of the US-Venezuela market to their US competitors, namely American Airlines, Continental, and Delta. After a FAA team visited Venezuela to examine Venezuelan airlines' planes and procedures, the US Federal Aviation Administration assessed Venezuela on April 21st 2006 as being in compliance with ICAO international aviation safety standards.