El Alcaraván Airport (IATA: EYP, ICAO: SKYP) serving the city of Yopal, capital of the Colombian department of Casanare.
This air terminal, classified in Category 8, has the essential services of an airport such as: Airport Police, SEI Service, SAR, ATS, TMA, Civil Aeronautics administration, Hangars, passenger boarding and landing area, cargo area, modules and commercial offices, fuel stations, restaurant and sports field. The airlines that operate passenger transport are Avianca, LATAM Colombia, the leading airline in the EasyFly regional flight segment. The company ALPES operates with charter flights to various destinations.
Currently, Aerocivil and Casanare authorities are discussing the possibility of enabling this air terminal for international flights, especially for technical stopovers between South America and northern countries.2
History
In 1965 the first commercial flights began at this airport after the founding of Aerotaxi Casanare S.A. For many years this was the only airline that operated in the city until 1992 when the civil aeronautics allowed Aires S.A. current LATAM Colombia made flights to and from El Yopal.3
In the interests of Ecopetrol, British Petroleum and other oil companies, in 1996 they invested approximately 6,100 million Colombian pesos to improve the facilities and expansion of the airport runway, since they planned to contract the services of Heavy Lift to transport large-sized material from the city of Barranquilla, Atlántico to El Yopal.
The Casanare Chamber of Commerce, in 2006, asked the Ministry of Transportation to enable the terminal as an international airport since it had all the characteristics of one.
In 2009 the possibility of converting El Alcaravan into an international airport was studied again; however, so far only domestic flights are operated.