Departure
97%
vs 95% ▲ 1
MY FS FLIGHTS
MY FS FLIGHTS
El Alto International Airport serves La Paz, Bolivia, from the high plateau city of El Alto, and at over 13,000 feet it stands as the highest international airport in the world. For the simulator pilot it offers a distinctive challenge: thin high-altitude air, a long main runway built to compensate for reduced aircraft performance, and a history that includes use by manufacturers for high-altitude certification flight testing.
El Alto International Airport (ICAO: SLLP, IATA: LPB) is the principal airport for La Paz, Bolivia, though it is physically sited in the neighbouring city of El Alto rather than La Paz itself. It is operated by Navegacion Aerea y Aeropuertos Bolivianos (NAABOL) and is notable above all for its extreme elevation, which makes it the highest international airport in the world and the highest commercial airport outside China. For a simulator pilot this altitude is the field's defining characteristic, demanding careful attention to performance, since the thin air at this height significantly reduces the lift and power available to piston and turbine aircraft alike.
The airport lies in the city of El Alto, on the high plateau roughly 13 kilometres west of the city of La Paz, which it serves. It is a major national and international aerodrome with its own control tower and approach service, La Paz TWR and La Paz APP, indicating that arriving and departing traffic operates within controlled airspace under positive ATC guidance rather than as an uncontrolled field.
El Alto has one long paved runway, 10/28, measuring 13,111 feet, hard-surfaced and lit, with an ILS approach available. A second, shorter parallel runway, 10L/28R, is 6,742 feet long with an unpaved surface. The field sits at an elevation of 13,212 feet, a figure that has a marked effect on true airspeeds, climb performance and required runway lengths for any aircraft using the field.
Radio services at El Alto include La Paz TWR on 118.3 MHz and La Paz APP on 119.5 MHz, with a ground frequency of 121.9 MHz and an information service, La Paz FIS, on 127.1 MHz; a further radio frequency of 662.2 MHz is also listed. The airport is equipped with VOR/DME and DVOR/DME navigation aids alongside an ILS Category I approach system, supporting instrument approaches to the main runway despite the high terrain and altitude.
Bolivian military aviation traces its roots to 1916, when the Military School of Aviation was formed in La Paz, and the idea of an airport for the city was first put forward by the local government in 1929, though it was not formally inaugurated until the 1960s. The airport as it is known today opened on 18 June 1965, following the lengthening of its runway and the construction of a modern passenger terminal to replace the earlier facility with its distinctive Tiwanakotan-style facade. Further reconstruction and enlargement followed in 1974. The field was for many years officially named John F. Kennedy International Airport, though this name was seldom used in practice, before Law 1944 formally renamed it El Alto International Airport in 1999 under the government of Hugo Banzer Suarez. It served as the principal hub of the former national carrier Lloyd Aereo Boliviano until that airline ceased operations in 2007. Management of the airport passed through several hands, including TBI plc and later the Spanish group Abertis via its subsidiary SABSA, before the Bolivian government nationalised the operator in February 2013.
El Alto continues to operate as a major hub, serving as a focus city for the state-owned carrier Boliviana de Aviacion (BOA). Because its extreme elevation prevents many wide-body aircraft such as the Boeing 747 and Airbus A330 from operating at full load, much of Bolivia's heavier international traffic is instead routed through the lower-altitude Viru Viru International Airport at Santa Cruz de la Sierra. The airport's unusual combination of altitude and thin air has also made it a favoured site for aircraft manufacturers, including Airbus, Bombardier and Boeing, who have used El Alto to conduct high-altitude takeoff and landing certification tests for modern types such as the Airbus A350 XWB, the A330neo and the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.