MOP begins operation of new terminal at Arica airport

Press release from the Ministry of Public Works of Chile

This is an automated translation of the press release issued in Spanish

This Tuesday, the Minister of Public Works, Jessica López, launched the operation of the new passenger terminal at the Chacalluta Airport in Arica, a concessioned initiative that represented an investment of close to 80 million dollars and that will allow receiving up to one million passengers per year.

The minister led the ceremony together with the Director General of the DGAC , General of Aviation Carlos Medina; the Director General of Concessions , Juan Manuel Sánchez; the National Director of Airports, Claudia Silva; the regional governor (s), Romina Cifuentes; and the presidential delegate, Camila Rivera; and the Seremi of Public Works of the region, Priscilla Aguilera.

The project, executed by the concessionaire Sacyr , included the expansion of the terminal from 5,352 ^m2 built to 12,184 ^m2 . During this stage, 3 of the 5 new boarding bridges were opened (the other two will begin to operate when 100% of the works are completed) and 192 seats will be available in the boarding halls (a total of 510 seats will be delivered once all the works are completed).

“Today we celebrate a historic milestone for the region. We received the first flights that begin the operation of this modern terminal where boarding and disembarking bays and completely new areas for thousands of passengers have been inaugurated. This is a very powerful infrastructure for such a strategic area for Chile, such as our northern border,” said the Minister of Public Works, Jessica López Saffie.

The national authority highlighted that, “this is an airport through which about 300 thousand people circulate per year, and it was enabled for a capacity of one million passengers. In addition, the landing strip has already been extended, so today we have a 2,800-meter runway, which allows for larger capacity, higher tonnage and larger aircraft, which is in its final stage of formalization to begin being used in the month of April.”

For her part, Presidential Delegate Camila Rivera Tapia said that “we officially celebrate the early delivery of the Chacalluta Airport, a space that today has new facilities that will not only allow for greater connectivity, but our Government continues to work hard for public, economic and social security.”

The mayor of Arica, Orlando Vargas, commented that "this is a substantial advance, this opens the doors to tourism, so now we need to work to bring customers and passengers. If we want to reach one million passengers, we must have incentives to develop the tourism and trade industry."

Finally, the MOP regional minister, Priscilla Aguilera, said that "this initiative has an investment of 80 million dollars and is extremely important for the region because it will allow us to develop strategic axes such as tourism, logistics and agriculture, which will allow us to generate new jobs for citizens," she said.

The terminal has three new counters for airlines (with a total of 16), 126 new parking spaces (with a total of 486) and 3 new aircraft platforms (with a total of 7).

Also new facilities for the DGAC that include a control tower, SSEI headquarters, electrical substation, air traffic information office ARO, and a new cargo terminal building.

It should be noted that in November alone the facility registered more than 32 thousand passengers boarded, so this year the number of users reaches more than 306 thousand, who will now be able to take advantage of these modern facilities. In terms of employment, it should be noted that at the end of October more than 200 people were working on construction sites.

The Chacalluta airport is part of the Airports Plan for Chile 2025-2030 , which aims to strengthen the airport network throughout the country, in order to enhance and strengthen connectivity and generate social, economic, productive and tourist development in the different regions of the country.

The initiative, which will represent a total investment of US$3.1 billion (US$1.8 billion from the Concessions Directorate and US$1.3 billion from the Airports Directorate), seeks to boost connectivity and the social, economic, productive and tourist development of Chile. This will benefit a total of 19 airports, including strategic infrastructure such as this airport in Arica, Easter Island, Torquemada, Puerto Natales and Teniente Marsh, in Antarctica.