Departure
96%
vs 95% ▲ 1
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
Matecaña International Airport (SKPE) serves Pereira in Colombia's coffee-growing region, sitting on the edge of a deep ravine with high terrain surrounding it on all but the southern side. It is a busy single-runway international airport under Aerocivil control, offering ILS-equipped approaches and full ATC services, making it an interesting but demanding destination for the simulator pilot.
Matecaña International Airport lies just outside Pereira, the capital of the Risaralda Department in Colombia's coffee-growing heartland. The airport is owned and its terminal managed by the city of Pereira, while flight operations are run by Aerocivil, a unique arrangement not replicated elsewhere in the country. It handles a significant share of the region's air traffic and also functions as an alternate for several larger Colombian cities, giving it a role well beyond its own modest passenger numbers.
The airport sits along the edge of a deep ravine about 2 kilometres west of central Pereira. High terrain surrounds the field in every quadrant except to the south, and there are steep dropoffs at the sides and ends of the runway, features that any visiting pilot should be aware of when planning an approach or departure.
Matecaña has a single physical runway, 08/26, 6,603 feet long with a hard surface and runway lighting. An ILS is available for runway 08, supporting instrument approaches into the field.
Pereira Approach is available on 120.7 MHz, with a secondary approach frequency of 348.8 MHz. The tower, Pereira Radio, operates on 118.7 MHz. The runway 08 ILS provides instrument guidance for arrivals in poor weather or at night.
The airport's position on the lip of a steep ravine, combined with high ground on most sides, makes the surrounding terrain itself a key visual reference; pilots should identify the ravine and the elevated terrain before committing to the approach, since the only clear low-terrain sector lies to the south.
Matecaña was built between 1944 and 1947, with its first official flight a C-47 flown by Captain Luis Carlos Londoño Iragorri on 24 July 1947. The passenger terminal in use for decades was a four-level building constructed in the early 1970s, with jetways added to the domestic waiting rooms in 1991. In 2014 the runway was extended to its current length to allow the airport to gain full international certification. From November 2017 the terminal building began a major redevelopment under a public-private partnership with CSS Construction, which also holds a stake in the renovation of Bogotá's El Dorado Airport.
Matecaña remains an active international airport serving Pereira and the wider coffee region, handling around 30 daily commercial operations to domestic and international destinations. Scheduled carriers connect the field to cities such as Bogotá, Medellín, Cartagena and Santa Marta, with onward connections available through Bogotá, Panama City and, seasonally, New York-JFK. The airport continues to operate through an ongoing programme of terminal renewal aimed at improving safety, comfort and capacity for its users.