New International Airport in Panama
At last, after some years of rumour, discussion and delay, the government is about to deliver us with a New International Airport at Rio Hato, in close proximity to Panama’s Pacific beaches.
The New International Airport serving the centre of the interior in Panama, and in particular the Pacific beaches, will be built around the old American built runway at Rio Hato, which spans the PanAmerican highway. Strategically, this is not the best place for it. Flights will inevitable have to overfly the beaches, which the airport is set to serve; and from information I received 18 months ago, this was not President Martinelli’s first choice. However the consortium of Italian billionaires, who arrived in Panama shortly after he had assumed the Presidency in 2009 are reputed to have advised him that building a new international airport on a green field site in Panama's interior would be vastly too expensive and would not be financially viable for many years to come, putting it out of court from any practical investment viewpoint.
So he was faced with a chicken and egg situation. The incoming flights are required to boost the tourism industry in the area, but you first need a large tourism industry to make an airport viable. Santiago and Aguadulce both made strong representations in the hope that the decision would come down in their favour, but the ideal choice was always going to be closer to Penonome. Taking any particular vested interest out of the equation, I always thought that the runway should have run parallel to the PanAmerican highway somewhere south of Anton. The land is flat, the orientation of the runway would be correctly North/South for the prevailing winter and summer winds, and it would be close to, but not interfering with, the Pacific beaches it is intended to serve.
The only upside of Rio Hato, which clearly influenced the decision, is that the runway is already there, making a huge cost saving. Clearly a major resurfacing needs to take place, and a tunnel has to be constructed under the PanAmerican highway. But at least we can have an airport up and running in a very short period of time, which must be good for all investors in the area.
I would hope that this would prove to be a temporary expedient, and that once the tourism industry in the area has grown sufficiently to support the additional investment, a proper long term new international airport is built in the location longtime preferred by both this Panama government and its predecessor, overflying the mangrove swamps south of Penonome. Who knows?