Medellin’s JMC International Airport Cargo Terminal Expansion Nearly Complete; Passenger Traffic Soars

Colombia’s national infrastructure agency (Agencia Nacional de Infraestructura, ANI) announced July 12, 2019 that the COP$110 billion (US$34 million) expansion of the cargo terminal at Medellin’s José María Córdova (JMC) international airport is nearly complete.

“The project awarded by ANI to the operator of Aeropuertos Centro Norte (Airplan) seeks via this extension to improve the logistics process of imports and exports, and reduce costs and transport times in this area of the country,” according to the agency .

The expansion works in the cargo terminal include adaptation of an administrative center, a cargo and warehousing service module, the extension of more than 33,000 square meters of taxiways and berms, the expansion of the platform that will expand from the current 14,000 square meters to more than 27,000 square meters and the construction of about 16,000 square meters of parking, according to ANI.

“Currently, this terminal serves the cargo transported by specialized airlines such as Avianca Cargo, Centurion Cargo, UPS, Aerosucre, Cargo Cup, Cargolux, Latam Cargo, Air Canada Cargo, Fedex and DHL as well as commercial passenger flights,” according to ANI.

“Among exportable products by air, flowers are considered the main transit through this terminal to destinations such as the United States, with the highest percentage of shipments, as well as to Japan, United Kingdom, Canada, the Netherlands, Spain and Russia.

“Among the new works was the adaptation of 3000 square meters of cold rooms that will allow a better management of [flower exports] and other loads, especially agricultural goods. It is estimated that, on average, flower shipments take between 11 and 16 hours from the initial harvesting to loading on the planes,” according to the agency.

Single Inspection Zone

Meanwhile, the new terminal also features one of the first single-cargo-inspection zones in all Colombia. This new area “seeks to implement new inspection procedures to streamline routine exercises carried out by entities such as the National Tax and Customs Directorate of Colombia (DIAN), the Anti-Narcotics police, the Invima (Colombia’s sanitary inspection regulatory agency) and the ICA (Colombia’s national agricultural research agency), according to ANI.

Passenger Traffic Jumps

On a related front, Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste (GAdS) announced  July 3 that domestic passenger traffic through JMC airport from January through June 2019 is already up 19% year-on-year, totalling 4.7 million passengers. Meanwhile, international passenger traffic through JMC from January-June 2019 likewise is up 13% year-on-year, to 857,136 passengers.