La Chinita International Airport

La Chinita International Airport Aeropuerto Internacional La Chinita
IATA: MAR ICAO: SVMC
Summary
Airport type	Public / Military
Operator	Government
Serves	Maracaibo
Location	San Francisco, Zulia
Opened	16 November 1969; 55 years ago (1969-11-16)
Hub for	Venezolana
Focus city for	Conviasa
Elevation AMSL	235 ft / 72 m
Coordinates	10°33′30″N 71°43′40″W
Map
MAR Location of the airport in Venezuela
Runways
Direction Length Surface m ft 03L/21R 3,000 9,843 concrete 03R/21L 2,500 8,202 Asphalt
Statistics (2008)
Passenger movements 2,848,677
Sources:,[1] WAD,[2] Google Maps[3]

La Chinita International Airport (IATA: MAR, ICAO: SVMC) is an international airport serving Maracaibo, the capital of Zulia. It is located southwest of Maracaibo proper in the municipality of San Francisco. La Chinita is Venezuela's second most important airport in terms of passenger and aircraft movements, after Simón Bolívar International Airport near Caracas.

History

This airport construction was accelerated due to the accident of Viasa Flight 742 on 16 March 1969, resulting in the death of 155 people and the closure of Grano de Oro Airport, where the airport is located too close to the city centre and surrounded neighbourhoods. (1960 diagram)

The airport opened on 16 November 1969, during the administration of President Rafael Caldera, to open a gateway to the western part of the country and to alleviate congestion from Simón Bolívar International Airport, which manages about half of the international flights in Venezuela.

Facilities

Runway 03L/21R length does not include a 300 metres (980 ft) paved overrun on the north end. The Maracaibo VORTAC (Ident: MAR) is located 0.81 nautical miles (1.50 km) northeast of the threshold of Runway 21R.^[4]

Airlines and destinations

Passenger

Airlines	Destinations
Avior Airlines	Caracas, Santa Barbara del Zulia
Conviasa	Caracas, Maturín, Porlamar, Puerto Ordaz
LASER Airlines	Caracas
RUTACA Airlines	Caracas
SATENA	Cúcuta[5]
Turpial Airlines	Valencia (VE)
Venezolana	Caracas, Porlamar, Puerto Ordaz

Cargo

Airlines	Destinations
Aerosucre	Bogotá[6]

Accidents and incidents

• On 1 November 1971, Vickers Viscount YV-C-AMZ of Linea Aeropostal Venezolana crashed shortly after take-off. All four people on board were killed.^[7]
• On March 5, 1991, Aeropostal Alas de Venezuela Flight 108 crashed in to a nearby mountain soon after takeoff, killing all 45 passenger and crew.^[8]

See also

• Transport in Venezuela
• List of airports in Venezuela

External links

• Airport information for MAR at Great Circle Mapper.
• SkyVector - La Chinita
• OurAirports - La Chinita
• OpenStreetMap - La Chinita

References

1. Dirección de Operaciones
2. World Data Aero^[usurped]
3. Google Maps - La Chinita
4. MAR VOR
5. "SATENA Sep 2024 Network Expansion". Aeroroutes. Retrieved 26 July 2024.
6. "Rutas". Aerosucre.com (in Spanish). Retrieved 7 March 2022.
7. "Accident description". Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved 8 October 2009.
8. "ASN Aircraft accident McDonnell Douglas DC-9-32 YV-23C Valera". aviation-safety.net. Retrieved 26 January 2023.