FEB. 13, 2020

The President and First Lady tour construction works on expansion of Puerto Montt airport: “We are making this into a true international airport”

On a visit to the Los Lagos Region, the President inspected construction works that involved an investment of approximately US$33 million. The construction, which will generate about 300 jobs, is part of the national plan to modernize 17 airports in order to improve Chile’s air capacity and connectivity.

This Thursday, President Sebastián Piñera and First Lady Cecilia Morel toured the initial construction works on the expansion of the El Tepual Airport in Puerto Montt. This includes remodeling the current passenger terminal building, new commercial areas, creation of 152 new parking spaces and expanded access and aircraft roads.
 
The plan also includes construction of a new runway that will increase capacity from two million to three million passengers.
 
“We are making this into a true international airport”, said the President, who was accompanied by the Regional Governor of the Los Lagos Region Harry Jürgensen and Acting Public Works Minister Cristóbal Leturia. 
 
The construction also includes new aeronautical facilities for the Directorate General of Civil Aviation as well as improvements to the international control sector and Investigations Police (PDI), Agriculture and Livestock Service (SAG) and customs facilities.
 
The construction is 6% complete and scheduled to end in June 2021.
 
These works are part of the Airport Network Modernization Plan that President Piñera announced in 2019. The plan includes an assessment of the condition and capacity of the country’s airport infrastructure, along with planning and prioritization of investments with a total estimated cost of US$1.442 billion for 2018-2022.
 
 “The network has to grow and modernize in order to meet the needs of the Chile of the future,” emphasized President Piñera.
 
The plan includes investments in 17 airports, 11 of them currently belong to the country’s concession network. This plan will add six new airfields to the concession system: Balmaceda, Viña del Mar, Pucón, Valdivia, Castro and Osorno, which will provide passengers with service standards similar to the entire primary network.
 
The Chilean airport industry has experienced unprecedented growth in the last decade with the number of passengers growing at an annual average rate of 10%. In 2019, the primary network transported a record 40,964,895 passengers.
 
The airport plan includes expansions and improvements at the following air terminals: “Chacalluta” in Arica; “Diego Aracena” in Iquique; “Andrés Sabella” in Antofagasta; “El Loa” in Calama; “Desierto de Atacama” in Caldera; “Florida” in La Serena; “Viña Del Mar” in Concón; “Arturo Merino Benítez” in Santiago; “Carriel Sur” in Concepción; “La Araucanía” in Freire; “Pucón” in Pucón; “Pichoy” in Valdivia; “Cañal Bajo” in Osorno; “El Tepual” in Puerto Montt; “Mocopulli” in Castro; “Balmaceda” in Balmaceda, and “Carlos Ibáñez del Campo” in Punta Arenas.