A friend provided me some pictures of the new Puerto Peñasco (Rocky Point) international airport during the Border Governor's Conference a couple of weeks ago. As you can see, the runway is complete and striped and was used for parking jets during the conference. Governor Bores reportedly landed his plane at the airport for a dedication with Mayor Renteria, and other conference attendees used the airport as parking for their jets.
My source indicates that "the new airport will be available to commercial operations in the first quarter of 2009. Aeromexico Connect [Aerolitoral] will move its current operations at the Municial Airport (PPE) to the new instalations and probably new routes to both Mexico and the US will follow; there are several airlines that are looking at this new market." So commercial airline operations to Hermosillo, Los Angeles and soon Las Vegas will ramp up using the Puerto Peñasco (PPE) airport as I have written in previous posts here and here and will eventually shift to the international airport as demand dictates. Good news for the future growth of Puerto Peñasco.
Update 10/30/2009
Rocky Point airport to open next week for private flights
Commercial air service could begin in January
By Mariana Alvarado
Arizona Daily Star
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 10.28.2009
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"Arizona's Beach" will now be only a short flight away.
A new international airport in Puerto Peñasco — also known as Rocky Point — is to open next week. Initially, there will be service for private and executive flights, and the hope is to have commercial flights to and from Tucson, Phoenix and Hermosillo beginning in January.
The Mar de Cortes International Airport was built by Operadora Aeroportuaria Golfo de Cortes. S.E. de C.V. with an initial investment of $45 million, said Fernando Antillón, airport director.
"This is a terminal that is going to keep growing … according to the demand," said Antillón.
The airport is 20 miles south of Puerto Peñasco and about 60 miles from the U.S. border. Puerto Peñasco is 35 minutes by air from Phoenix and one hour from Los Angeles.
The terminal will be inaugurated next Thursday by Mexico's president, Felipe Calderón, as well as representatives from the tourism industry.
It will be fully operational by 2012, but currently its 1.55-mile concrete runway is capable of handling all types of service and aircraft up to Boeing 757s and similar aircraft, according to airport officials.
Antillón said the next phase of the construction will bring the total investment in the project to nearly $80 million.
The airport is operated by a subsidiary of conglomerate Grupo Vidanta, which is currently building several resort and residential developments in the region. Grupo Vidanta built and operates the Mayan Palace in Rocky Point.
Airport construction started in 2007. At that time, Grupo Vidanta built in six months a provisional airport to accommodate a Mexico-U.S. border governors conference in Puerto Peñasco.