{"id":5036,"date":"2021-12-09T00:08:54","date_gmt":"2021-12-08T23:08:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.revistaitransporte.com\/?p=5036"},"modified":"2021-12-09T23:20:33","modified_gmt":"2021-12-09T22:20:33","slug":"santa-marta-between-the-caribbean-sea-and-the-mountains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.revistaitransporte.com\/santa-marta-between-the-caribbean-sea-and-the-mountains\/","title":{"rendered":"Santa Marta: between the Caribbean Sea and the mountains"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sim\u00f3n Bol\u00edvar International Airport is situated in the far north of the Republic of Colombia, 16.5 kilometres from the city of Santa Marta, capital of the department of Magdalena. The region\u2019s main tourist attractions include the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountain range, Tayrona National Park and the cities of Barranquilla and Cartagena, two of the country\u2019s most important conurbations.<\/p>\n

Opened some 60 years ago, in recent decades tourism and economic development in the region have caused airport traffic (primarily of domestic origin) to grow from 532,000 passengers in 2009 to 2.4 million in 2019, with a compound annual growth rate of 16.5%. To accommodate this growth, the airport was modernised in 2017 with new facilities such as a control tower, passenger terminal and car park.<\/p>\n

In recent decades, tourism and economic development in the region have driven growth in airport traffic, with 2.4 million passengers in 2019<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

At present, the airport has one runway (01\/19), which is 1,700 metres long by 40 metres wide and accessed via two taxiways. There is an apron with six stands for parking commercial aircraft, two general-purpose aviation hangars, and a helicopter pad. The three-storey terminal building covers an area of 14,600 m2<\/sup>. There is also an underground car park for cars and motorcycles, and a surface-level car park for taxis and buses. Road access is via the Troncal del Caribe, one of the country\u2019s most important trunk roads.<\/p>\n

Despite these improvements, the investments that have been made in the Magdalena region to boost tourism mean that a growth in international traffic is expected over the coming years. This is reflected in the traffic forecasts in the Master Plan drawn up by the UTE APM Sim\u00f3n Bol\u00edvar consortium, which is led by Ineco and also includes the Spanish engineering firm Ivicsa. The Plan was approved by Colombia\u2019s civil aviation authority, Aerocivil, in December 2020.<\/p>\n

Future plans<\/h4>\n

The Master Plan is the centrepiece of the planning process for an airport. It sets out the path for development and growth based on different traffic forecasts. Taking the current situation as the starting point, a study is made of potential demand in different time horizons. The aim is to determine what infrastructure and services will be required, in accordance with international safety and quality standards, and when they will be required, along with an estimate of costs.<\/p>\n

The Plan also evaluates the impact of the airport\u2019s activities on its surroundings and coordinates actions with the aviation authorities, the local community, and local and regional administrations and public bodies. The final stage is approval of the Plan on the part of the state aviation authority (Aerocivil in the case of Colombia). In order to meet these objectives successfully, a Master Plan must be updated periodically, and whenever changes in demand require it to be modified.<\/p>\n

Ineco has over 20 years of experience in the drafting and updating of Master Plans: not only for the Aena network of Spanish airports, but also for countries such as Mexico and Kuwait.<\/p>\n

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PROPOSED DEVELOPMENTS. Summary of the developments proposed by the Master Plan, in comparison with the airport\u2019s current boundaries (marked in green). PLAN_UTE APM SIM\u00d3N BOL\u00cdVAR<\/p><\/div>\n

The first step: predicting the evolution of traffic<\/h4>\n

In order to draw up the Master Plan, Ineco\u2019s airport experts began by generating short, medium and long-term traffic forecasts for Sim\u00f3n Bol\u00edvar Airport, taking into account factors such as the anticipated growth in international tourism. After an exhaustive analysis they defined a number of different traffic horizons: in the short term, a volume of 3.5 million passengers, with 27,400 aircraft movements; in the medium term, 4.5 million passengers, with 35,000 movements; and in the long term, 7.3 million passengers with over 52,000 movements. In light of the investments made in recent years to promote tourism in the Magdalena region, it was estimated that almost 5% of this traffic could be international.<\/p>\n

After preparing the traffic forecast, the experts then identified the needs of the existing infrastructure. They found that the length of the existing runway limited the potential for flights to international destinations in the region, and that it would therefore be necessary to extend it. They also concluded that both the terminal and apron were close to saturation; however, the airport\u2019s proximity to the sea prevented expansion in its current location.<\/p>\n

Consequently, in order to meet the forecast growth in traffic, the key action would be to extend the runway in order to serve new destinations up to 2,000 nautical miles away (e.g. New York, Mexico City), and to adapt the airfield so that it meets international standards. To achieve this, the Master Plan proposes a number of different expansion options, which have been evaluated using a multi-criteria matrix that takes into account factors such as air navigation and operability, costs and acquisition of land, impacts on urban areas, noise and restrictions due to obstacle limitation surfaces, construction feasibility, and the impacts on other infrastructure and the environment.<\/p>\n