El Alto International Airport

El Alto International Airport is the main airport that serves the city of La Paz, Bolivia. It is found in the nearby city of El Alto, just 13 kilometres (8 miles) to the west of La Paz. This airport is very special because it is the highest international airport in the whole world, sitting at an elevation of 4,061.5 metres (13,325 feet) above sea level.

The airport has been helping people travel since the early 1900s, but it got a big update in the late 1960s. During this time, the runway was made longer, and a new passenger terminal with modern features was built. The updated airport opened to the public in 1965.

For many years, El Alto International Airport was a main center for Lloyd Aéreo Boliviano, which was Bolivia's main airline until it stopped operating in 2007. Today, the airport is an important place for Boliviana de Aviación, Bolivia’s current national airline. The airport is known by the letters LPB for short, and its full name in Spanish is Aeropuerto Internacional El Alto.

History

Bolivia has very varied terrain, including tall mountains and high plateaus, which makes travel between cities difficult. Aviation has been an important way for people in isolated areas to travel.

Bolivian air transport began in 1916 with the formation of the Military School of Aviation in La Paz. The local government first planned to build an airport there in 1929, but it was not officially opened until the 1960s. In 1974, the airport was rebuilt with a new terminal and updated facilities.

Until 1999, the airport was officially named after John F. Kennedy, though this name was not commonly used. That year, during the government of Hugo Banzer Suárez, the airport was officially renamed El Alto International Airport.

Modernization

In 2006, nearly 2.3 million dollars were invested to rebuild the main terminal. This included expanding the baggage claim area, reshaping the check-in area, and building a new corridor to the air bridges. Administrative offices, the main hall, and the international area were also fully modernized.

Characteristics

The new terminal has many shops where you can buy handmade items from Bolivia, as well as bookstores and special shops without taxes. You can also find restaurants and cafes in the main area and in the places where people leave for trips inside and outside the country.

The airport has two runways for planes. The main runway is made of concrete and is 4,000 metres (13,123 feet) long, which helps big planes take off and land at high altitudes. There is also a second runway made of grass next to the main one. The airport has special tools to help planes navigate and land safely.

El Alto International Airport is the highest international airport in the world, sitting at 4,062 metres (13,327 feet) above sea level. Because the air is thin at this height, some very large planes cannot take off fully loaded. For this reason, many international flights from Bolivia use another airport in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, which is at a lower height and better for big planes.

Because it is so high up, El Alto is used by airplane makers like Airbus, Bombardier, and Boeing to test how planes can take off and land at high altitudes. New planes such as the Airbus A350 XWB, Airbus A330neo, and Boeing 787 Dreamliner have used El Alto for important tests.

Operators

From 1997, El Alto International Airport was managed by a company called Servicio de Aeropuertos Bolivianos S.A. (SABSA). This company also managed two other big airports in Bolivia. Over the years, different companies owned SABSA before the Government of Bolivia took control in 2013. In March 2022, SABSA was replaced by a new government agency called Navegación Aérea y Aeropuertos Bolivianos (NAABOL).

Airlines and destinations