Toncontín International Airport

Toncontín Airport formerly Toncontín International Airport, also known as Teniente Coronel Hernán Acosta Mejía Airport is a civil and military airport located from the centre of Tegucigalpa, Honduras.

The History Channel programme Most Extreme Airports ranks it as the second most extreme airport in the world. The approach to the airport is considered to be one of the most difficult in the world to all aircraft, especially in inclement weather conditions.

History

thumb|Toncontín in the 1980s

Since the 19th century, the plains south of Tegucigalpa became known as the "Potrero Los Llanos", part of a farm adjoining the farm Loarque. In these areas, some political events took place. José Santos Guardiola defeated General José Trinidad Cabañas, seizing presidency of the republic. "", as it was known, is to the south end of Comayagüela. On a road to the south is the field that served for the takeoff and landing of aircraft. Currently, this forms the Hernán Acosta Mejía (HAM) Air Force base. The first landing was in 1921 when a single-engine plane from the Bristol Aeroplane Company landed with Captain Dean Ivan Lamb in command. He was received by President Rafael López Gutiérrez who broke a bottle of champagne on one of the aircraft's propellers.

The origin of the name Toncontín is unknown, but experts say that it is a word derived from the Nahuatl word "Tocotín", the name of an ancient and sacred dance of Yucatán in Mexico.

Aviator Luigi Venditti conducted several flights using the natural floodplain from Toncontín. Jose Villa, an Italian national, was another precursor of Honduran aviation who conducted flights from Toncontín, as did Starnaivola, Enrique Massi, Ball, and Clarence H. Brown.

The civil war in 1924 caused President Tiburcio Carías Andino to realise that aviation had a great future in Honduras, providing an ideal transport solution for the mountainous country, as well as being a strategic military weapon. For these reasons and with the growth of commercial aviation and the emergence of the Honduran Air Force, General Tiburcio Carías acquired the land that was to become Toncontín Airport in 1933. On January 5, 1934, the airport was inaugurated with the landing of a Douglas DC-3 from Pan American World Airways. Months later TACA opened "Hotel Toncontín" to accommodate passengers in transit, and Pan-Am built a hangar.

During the Football War of 1969, Toncontín Airport was a major target for the Salvadoran Air Force, and was bombed on several occasions, thus preventing the Honduran Air Force from launching its aircraft. The airport was repaired in a matter of days, and the Hondurans countered, making good progress.

Facilities

thumb|right|Interior of Toncontín

thumb|right|Toncontín before the renovation of the hillside runway

thumb|right|Toncontín after the renovation of the hillside runway

The airport received much notoriety as being one of the most dangerous in the world due to its proximity to mountainous terrain, its short runway, and its historically difficult approach to runway 02. and Boeing 757s operated by American Airlines, which in 2015 replaced them with Airbus A319s. In the 1980s and early 1990s, SAHSA operated Boeing 727s and Boeing 737s from its hub at Toncontín.

Toncontín International Airport has 4 gates (2 in the new terminal), a post office, a bank and bureau de change, many restaurants, and several airline lounges, as well as a duty-free shop, car rental services, and a first-aid room. The old terminal is undergoing renovation, and will be used for domestic flights in the future. The new terminal was used for international flights until 2021.

Toncontín was also the home of the Aeroclub de Honduras (Honduran Air Club).

International flights suspension

On May 30, 2008, the crash of TACA Flight 390 prompted the announcement by then Honduran President Manuel Zelaya that all large aircraft operations would move to the Soto Cano Air Base. This move would effectively move all international traffic from Toncontín, limiting its use to only domestic flights and small aircraft.

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) completed a review of Toncontín and made safety recommendations regarding the airport. On June 25, 2008, President Zelaya reiterated his position of severely restricting international traffic to and from Toncontín and announced his intention to form a commission that would oversee implementing the safety recommendations of the ICAO report.

On July 8, 2008, President Zelaya announced the reopening of Toncontín airport at a news conference following a three-hour meeting with businessmen, who had demanded commercial flights resume at Toncontín due to Soto Cano Air Base being too far from Tegucigalpa. Zelaya reiterated that all commercial flights would eventually use the new airport at Soto Cano from 2009. This however, was canceled after Zelaya was removed from office on June 28, 2009, in the 2009 Honduran coup d'état. International flights continued to operate to Toncontín until November 16, 2021.

Current day

thumb|Aerial view of Toncontín International Airport

In 2009 TACA Airlines could not operate to Toncontín and apparently the rest of the country's airports because of a state debt to Honduras, but on May 20, 2009, TACA said that the problems with Honduras were resolved.
In 2009 Authorities at the airport finally decided to make use of masks and other measures to prevent the H1N1 flu virus, since the number of cases had risen to 34 in the country.
In 2009, one year after the crash of TACA Flight 390 at Toncontín airport that killed five people, business owners near the site of the tragedy complained that they had not been compensated.
In 2008 Honduras' President Manuel Zelaya said that Tegucigalpa, the capital of the country, would benefit from the construction of the Palmerola airport, while others claim that this was an attempt to close Toncontín.
The Civil Aviation Authority of Honduras temporarily suspended the operating license of Islena Airlines, part of the Taca El Salvador group, for outstanding debts of 37 million Honduran lempira, leaving the service of internal flights to Honduras in crisis.
In May 2009, a extension was completed on the south end of the runway, increasing the length of the runway from to . The extension is helpful for take-offs to the north, and rare landings from the north, however, it is debatable whether it will assist with standard landings from the south due to the proximity to nearby mountains.
On July 5, 2009, the airport was closed to all flights and the airspace in and around Toncontín was severely restricted due to the planned arrival of ousted Honduran president Manuel Zelaya. Zelaya's private Venezuelan jet was not given landing clearance by the Authorities at Toncontín and the military blocked the single runway with vehicles and troops. The plane was then diverted to Managua, Nicaragua.
Due to the bombing attempt by Al-Qaeda of Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on December 25, 2009; the security at Toncontín was increased with the use of undercover police officers at the airport.
On January 27, 2010, Honduran ex-president Manuel Zelaya and his family left the country after 120 days seeking refuge at the Brazilian Embassy, they left at 14:45 from Toncontín International Airport, to the Dominican Republic, where Zelaya proposed to hold a trial against the people who ran the 2009 Honduran constitutional crisis. Thousands of Hondurans were present outside the airport to witness the moment Zelaya left the country.
In April 2011, the airport authority and the government of Honduras resumed airport relocation talks and announced that work on the new Palmerola airport would start by the fall of 2011 after years of efforts to replace Toncontín International with an airport at Palmerola in Comayagua where the Soto Cano Air Base is located. However, in a September 25, 2011 update, President Lobo stated officials were still "evaluating the pros and cons" of constructing the new airport. This comes three years after former President Manuel Zelaya had announced that all commercial flights would be transferred to Soto Cano Air Base; however, work on the new terminal at Soto Cano was then cancelled after Zelaya was removed from office on 28 June 2009 in the 2009 Honduran coup d'état. Upon realization of the Palmerola airport, commercial flights to and from Toncontín would continue to operate but will be limited to small aircraft and domestic flights.
During 2018, the airport received 625,593 passengers.
As of December 15, 2021, all international carriers operating at Toncontin had moved operations to the new recently inaugurated Comayagua International Airport located in the military air base of Palmerola, located from Tegucigalpa. Among the airlines that have moved operations are: American Airlines, Avianca El Salvador, Copa Airlines and United Airlines. Airlines such as Aeroméxico Connect and Spirit Airlines are the new international carriers operating to/from Tegucigalpa/Comayagua.
As of 2025, a cargo airline is the sole airline operating international flights out of the airport.

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

thumb|[[Copa Airlines Boeing 737-700 in Tegucigalpa]]

thumb|[[TACA Airlines|TACA Airbus A320-200 in Tegucigalpa]]

Cargo

Operations

Runway 02 approach

Because of the terrain in Tegucigalpa, aircraft cannot easily be accommodated on a traditional straight-in approach for Runway 02, the most frequently used runway because of wind direction. Instead, an RNAV (GPS) approach is used, resembling a circle-to-land approach. Aircraft are routed through shallower terrain in a circular fashion, then follow along the Anillo Periferico road to a cloverleaf interchange, at which point aircraft take a sharp left turn to line up with runway 02. Until the partial demolition of the hillside, aircraft experienced limited ground clearance just before the threshold, hence had to approach slightly higher than optimal, increasing the challenge of the landing already made challenging by the short runway.

To maximize the amount of runway available, many aircraft land on the displaced threshold, just before the actual 02 threshold.

Runway 02 departure

Departures from runway 02 must turn to a heading of 018 degrees and then climb swiftly to 9000 feet to avoid mountainous terrain just north of the airport. Because of the short length of the runway and the high altitude of the airport, aircraft require a large amount of power to do this, making late go-arounds potentially dangerous if not executed properly, especially in a plane with a poorer power-to-weight ratio that climbs slower.

Statistics

Accidents and incidents

7 June 1962: A Curtiss C-46 Commando, (HR-SAL), a cargo flight operated by SAHSA, crash-landed at Toncontín when the left undercarriage collapsed on touchdown. Both crew members survived but the aircraft was damaged beyond repair.
30 June 1966: A Douglas DC-6, (HR-TNG), operated by Transportes Aéreos Nacionales overran the runway on landing and was destroyed by fire.

References

External links

OpenStreetMap - Toncontín Airport
Interairports (Spanish)
Video of a landing at Toncontín (YouTube)