Latin America: Bogota, Mexico Top Airports

Latin America’s top 50 airports for cargo and passenger traffic and aircraft movements.

BY CHRONICLE STAFF

Bogota’s international airport El Dorado is Latin America’s largest in terms of cargo traffic, while Mexico City’s Benito Juarez airport is the largest in passenger traffic and aircraft movements, according to the first annual ranking of Latin America’s Top 50 Airports from Latin Business Chronicle based on data from Swiss-based Airports Council International (ACI).

And despite the economic crisis in Venezuela, Caracas’ Simon Bolivar airport posted the strongest growth in cargo traffic last year, in percentage terms, according to a Latin Business Chronicle analysis.

CARGO: BOGOTA KING

All but six of the top 50 airports posted declines in cargo last year. In total, all airports in Latin America and the Caribbean posted an 11.4 percent decline in cargo last year to 4.2 million tons, according to ACI.

El Dorado last year moved 512,842 million metric tons, a decline of 11.4 percent from 2008. Bogota’s status as the leading cargo airport in Latin America is due to three factors, points out Tomás Serebrisky, an economist at The World Bank’s Sustainable Development Department. First, Bogota handles a lot of perishable goods such as flowers that need to be shipped air instead of sea. Second, Bogota has extensive connections with the region and a central location geographically. And third, Bogota is the main airport in Colombia, a major economy, whereas countries like Brazil, Mexico and Argentina have several other major airports that handle significant cargo flows.

Colombia has the most extensive cargo connections of major countries in Latin America, according to a new World Bank report that has not yet been published. Colombia’s yearly air cargo connections of 887 compares with 679 for Mexico and 470 for Brazil. However, in terms of overall air cargo, Colombia ranks second to Brazil in Latin America. Brazil accounts for 32.7 percent of Latin America’s air cargo, followed by Colombia, with 17.9 percent, the report shows.

Guarulhos in Sao Paulo is the second-largest cargo airport in Latin America. Last year it handled 382,722 metric tons of cargo, a decline of 19.5 percent.

However, it receives widespread criticism for being inefficient. A survey among members of the Latin American and Caribbean Air Transport Association (ALTA) showed Guarulhos as having the worst infrastructure and worst operations among 15 leading airports in Latin America.

Mexico City’s Benito Juarez ranks third in cargo traffic in Latin America. Last year it handled 325,452 metric tons of cargo, a 14.9 percent decline.

Santiago’s Arturo Merino Benitez airport ranks fourth in Latin America in terms of cargo. Last year it handled 255,789 metric tones, a 14.3 percent decrease.

Rounding out the top five airports was Lima’s Jorge Chavez airport, which handled 232,374 million metric tons of cargo last year, a 2.8 percent decline.

Apart from Caracas, other cargo growth winners last year include San Luis Potosi (17.6 percent), Merida (15.1 percent), San Andres (13.6 percent) and Fortaleza (7.7 percent).

Iquique in Chile was the biggest loser in cargo traffic last year, posting a 38.7 percent decline. Other losers include Vitoria in Brazil (down 32.7 percent), Salvador in Brazil (down 23 percent), Iquitos in Peru (down 22.9 percent) and Campinas in Brazil (down 22.7 percent).

PASSENGERS: MEXICO KING

When it comes to passenger traffic, Latin America was able to post growth of 1.5 percent last year to 368.7 million passengers.

Brazilian airports take the lead in passenger growth. Campinas international airport Viracopos is the fastest-growing airport in Latin America thanks to posting a whopping 181.8 percent jump last year, according to the Latin Business Chronicle analysis of ACI data.

Rio de Janeiro’s Santo Dumond airport came in second, thanks to a 40.6 percent increase in passenger traffic. Santo Dumond also came in second worldwide on an ACI list of fastest-growing airports with more than five million passengers.

Of the five leading passenger growth winners, all were Brazilian. Apart from Campinas and Santo Dumond they were Cuiaba (up 21.6 percent), Fortaleza (20.5 percent) and Vitoria (17.7 percent).

While Brazil dominates the passenger traffic growth winners, Mexico dominates the top losers. Toluca had the worst performance, seeing a 37.2 percent drop. Other losers were Monterrey (down 21.6 percent), Puerto Vallarta (down 19.7 percent), Tijuana (down 14.2 percent) and San Jose del Cabo (down 12.3 percent).

When looking at international passengers alone, Sao Paulo’s Guarulhos tops the list, followed by Mexico City’s Benito Juarez airport. Guarulhos last year handled 8.5 million passengers, a 4.4 percent decline, Benito Juarez saw a 14.1 percent fall to 8.1 million passengers. That was the worst result among the top ten international passenger airports.

Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic posted the best results among the top ten – an 11.2 percent increase to 4.1 million international passengers.

AIRCRAFT MOVEMENTS: MEXICO KING

Total aircraft movements in Latin America fell 0.5 percent to 7.4 million last year, ACI reports.

Peru’s Pisco airport posted the best growth last year – 83.2 percent to 46,616 aircraft movements. Other winners include Campinas (up 70.6 percent), Rio’s Santo Dumond (up 35.7 percent), Rio airport (RIO, up 29.7 percent) and Vitoria (up 18.8 percent).

Monterrey posted the worst performance in aircraft movements – a 22.6 percent decline to 85,260. Other key losers include Tijuana (down 17.9 percent0, Toluca (down 17.5 percent), Sorocaba (down 17.4 percent) and Puerto Vallarta (down 16.6 percent).