Departure
93%
vs 95% ▼ 2
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
José María Córdova International Airport (SKRG) serves Medellín from the town of Rionegro, some 20 kilometres south-east of the city, at an elevation of nearly 7,000 feet in the Colombian Andes. It is Colombia's second-busiest airport, with a single long runway equipped with ILS that is shared with the Colombian Air Force's CACOM 5 base, making it a significant destination for both civil and military traffic in a simulator.
José María Córdova International Airport lies at Rionegro in the Antioquia Department, acting as the principal gateway for the Medellín metropolitan area since the smaller in-town Olaya Herrera Airport was limited by space. It is operated as a public international airport and is the second largest in Colombia by infrastructure and passenger volume, handling major international routes as well as the busy Medellín-Bogotá domestic corridor. For a simulator pilot the field offers a high-elevation approach into mountainous terrain on a single long runway equipped with an ILS, combined with mixed civil and military traffic sharing the airfield.
The airport sits at Rionegro, approximately 20 kilometres south-east of the city of Medellín, in the Antioquia Department of Colombia. The same runway is also used by the Colombian Air Force's Air Combat Command No. 5 (CACOM 5), a military base located at Rionegro, so pilots can expect military as well as civil movements at the field.
The airport has a single physical runway, 01/19, 11,511 feet long with a hard surface and lit for night operations. An instrument landing system serves runway 01, supporting precision approaches into the high-elevation Rionegro valley.
Radio services are provided under the Medellín identity. Medellín Approach operates on 121.1 MHz, Medellín Tower on 118.6 MHz, and ground movement on 121.65 MHz. An ATIS broadcast is available on 115.1 MHz, and Medellín FIS/Information can be reached on 127.2 MHz. Medellín Radio also provides service on 348.8 MHz and 891.8 MHz. The field is equipped with VOR, NDB and ILS navigation aids, the ILS being associated with runway 01, which assist navigation and landing in poor weather over the surrounding high terrain.
José María Córdova International Airport opened on 29 August 1985, built in the San Nicolás valley at Rionegro after the existing Olaya Herrera Airport in Medellín proved too constrained for expansion; an alternative site near Barbosa had also been considered before Rionegro was chosen. In its opening year Avianca conducted test flights of its Boeing 747 first at Olaya Herrera and then at the newly built José María Córdova, and the new airport took on significant passenger and cargo traffic while Olaya Herrera was closed between 1986 and 1991. The airport is named after General José María Córdova, a Colombian army officer native to Rionegro. In January 2006 an Airbus A380 landed at the airport for engine testing, the first appearance of the type in Colombia and in South America. The field's history includes serious accidents on approach, including a crash on the slopes of Páramo Frontino and the loss of a SELVA Colombia Antonov An-32B cargo aircraft on final approach to runway 36 in December 1996, underlining the challenges of the surrounding mountainous terrain.
The airport remains the principal international gateway for the Medellín Metropolitan Area, handling major international and domestic passenger routes as well as significant cargo traffic, with Avianca Cargo operating its main base from the field. It continues to share its runway with the Colombian Air Force's CACOM 5 military base at Rionegro, so both civil and military movements are routine at the airport.