Departure
96%
vs 95% ▲ 1
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Querétaro Intercontinental Airport lies in the Bajío region of central Mexico, serving the Querétaro metropolitan area with a single very long runway capable of handling large jet and cargo aircraft. Opened in 2004 to replace the city's older, more constrained airfield, it has grown into a significant passenger and cargo hub and is of interest to the simulator pilot for its long single-runway layout and its role as an alternate to Mexico City.
Querétaro Intercontinental Airport (ICAO: MMQT, IATA: QRO) is a large public airport serving the Querétaro Metropolitan area in central Mexico. It is operated under the State of Queretaro Government and has grown rapidly to become an important passenger and cargo gateway, as well as a hub for the regional carrier TAR Aerolíneas. For the simulator pilot it offers a single very long, hard-surfaced runway at a high field elevation, combined with a working mix of airline, cargo and maintenance traffic that makes for an interesting arrival or departure.
The airport is situated in the municipalities of Colón and El Marqués, in the state of Querétaro, Mexico, some way to the east of the city of Santiago de Querétaro itself. It replaced the former Ing. Fernando Espinosa Gutiérrez Airport, which lay closer to the city centre, with the new site chosen roughly twelve minutes' flying time, or about 19 kilometres, further east. Given its size and role, Querétaro can also function as an alternate airport to Mexico City International Airport.
The airport has a single physical runway, 09/27, of 11,425 feet in length with a hard surface and runway lighting. There is no ILS approach available.
Air traffic services are provided on a tower frequency of 118.95 MHz.
The present airport replaced Querétaro's original civilian aerodrome, which had opened in 1955 and was expanded from 1986 under the state-owned operator Aeropuertos y Servicios Auxiliares. Scheduled airline services began there in 1992 with Aerolitoral and TAESA, followed by Aeromar in 1993, and the field gained official international airport status in 1997, by which time it was handling around 110,000 passengers and 11,000 operations a year. During the 1990s, Querétaro was one of several airports, alongside Toluca, Cuernavaca and Puebla, considered as a potential reliever for congested Mexico City airspace. Planning for an entirely new airport began in 1999, on a site roughly 19 kilometres east of the old aerodrome, with construction starting on 12 July 2002. The new Querétaro Intercontinental Airport opened on 28 November 2004, taking over the QRO/MMQT codes, and the old airfield was subsequently dismantled and its site donated to the Autonomous University of Querétaro. Since opening, the new airport has developed strongly as a cargo hub: a dedicated Air Cargo Terminal began construction in 2006, and carriers including Regional Cargo and BAX Global began operations in 2007, followed by FedEx in 2011 and DHL in 2012. Aeromexico and Delta Air Lines announced plans for a joint maintenance base at the airport in 2012, and American Eagle services to Dallas-Fort Worth began in 2015, later taken over by American Airlines itself.
Querétaro Intercontinental Airport today handles both scheduled passenger services and substantial cargo operations, with airlines including Aeromexico, American Airlines, United Airlines, TAR Aerolíneas, Volaris and Viva Aerobus serving domestic and international destinations, and cargo tenants such as DHL, FedEx and UPS based on the field. It also hosts the Querétaro Aerospace Cluster and one of the largest aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul operations in Mexico, reflecting the airport's dual role as both a commercial gateway and an aerospace industry hub.