RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – With a symbolic act in which the first stone was laid to start the works, Uruguay took the first step on Wednesday, March 9, to build a new international airport, which will be located in the city of Carmelo in the southwest of the country.
According to information provided by the company Aeropuertos Uruguay, owner of the concession, the modernization of the site includes the construction of a new terminal “with all the amenities and technology to operate international flights,” which will be ready by the end of 2022.
Including the different works, operating costs, and maintenance, the total investment will be close to US$45 million.
The President of Uruguay, Luis Lacalle Pou, one of the guests at the event, stressed to the press the importance of this fact since this place “had a good air traffic”.
“I think that with this investment, making a first-class runway and giving it what it means to be international, surely with all the enterprises that are here in the area, with the efforts that many people have made, I think it will boost the tourism sector of Carmelo and the whole department (province) of Colonia,” he said.
With outstanding beaches and a yacht berth with a capacity for more than 100 moorings, the city of Carmelo is located about 70 kilometers from the city of Colonia del Sacramento.
Separated from Buenos Aires by a 50-kilometer boat ride and home to a Historic District declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco, it is one of the most visited places in the country, with a pre-pandemic movement of two million people per year.
The new terminal is one of the six in which Aeropuertos Uruguay will invest, which will also carry out works of this type in the departments of Durazno (center), Cerro Largo (east), Rivera (northeast), Paysandú, and Salto (both in the northwest).
Likewise, it already manages the two most important airports in the country, Carrasco International Airport, on the outskirts of Montevideo, and Laguna del Sauce International Airport, a few kilometers from the tourist resort of Punta del Este.
With information from EFE
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