The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has presented a study determining the current effective capacity of Bogota’s El Dorado International Airport (BOG) could have a 47% increase in capacity if authorities were to implement a set of 23 measures, including optimizing processing times in terminals, improving the efficient use of parallel runways, and more.
El Dorado could have more capacity
IATA, in collaboration with various stakeholders in the airline and aviation industry (such as Colombia’s Ministry of Transport and carriers like American Airlines, avianca, LATAM, and Wingo), made a study to identify how Colombia’s main airport could improve its competitiveness and expand flight options for passengers. El Dorado was Latin America’s second-busiest airport in 2022.
The study, released this week, identified 23 areas of improvement, categorized as short, medium, and long-term actions based on their level of complexity. If these measures were to be implemented, El Dorado could enhance its capacity and positively impact service, operational efficiency, and the travel experience for both domestic and international passengers, said IATA in a statement.
Paula Bernal, General Manager of IATA in Colombia, said in a statement: “It is essential to consider that El Dorado’s operational capacity influences the efficiency of all airports in the country, as many domestic and international connections are made through this terminal. Therefore, adopting the study’s recommendations benefits the timely connectivity of passengers to their destinations in the short, medium, and long term.”
Short-term recommendations
IATA had eight short-term recommendations for El Dorado. These measures are easy to implement and do not require extraordinary investments. They could be done within a range of four to 11 months.
These recommendations include actions such as reducing aircraft occupancy times on the runway, decreasing separating between departing aircraft, improving the use of the airport’s parallel runways, and optimizing the use of check-in and counter queue times in Terminal 2.
Medium-term recommendations
Similarly, IATA outlined eight medium-term recommendations for El Dorado, which could be implemented in between four and 15 months. These measures have a moderate implementation complexity but can offer benefits for operational efficiency and the passenger experience.
IATA identified medium-term measures such as the use of supporting technological tools for decision-making, procedures for the takeoff of different-performance aircraft (jet-turboprop), optimal use of parallel runways during visual meteorological conditions, compliance with speed limits in the terminal control area by crews, airspace sector management, among others.
Long-term recommendations
Finally, IATA had five long-term recommendations that could be implemented in a maximum of 30 months. The airline association urged Colombian authorities not to overlook these measures because they could help El Dorado remain one of the region’s primary airports in the future…
