José Joaquín de Olmedo International Airport

José Joaquín de Olmedo International Airport (GYE) is Ecuador's second-busiest airport and the primary aviation gateway to the Pacific coast of South America's equatorial region. Located in central Guayaquil just 5 km (3 mi) north of the downtown Malecón at 19 ft (6 m) elevation, GYE sits on an unusually close-in site for a major Latin American airport, hemmed in by the sprawling city on all sides. Its single 9,154-ft (2,790-m) asphalt runway 03/21 supports fully loaded Boeing 787 and Airbus A330 operations to Europe, despite the short-field complications of a hot-and-humid tropical lowland location. The airport has been repeatedly recognised by Skytrax and ACI as Latin America's best medium-sized airport in the late 2010s. It serves 48 routes to 29 destinations on 16 airlines (2026), including non-stops on KLM (Amsterdam), Iberia (Madrid), Air Europa (Madrid), Copa (Panama), American (Miami), JetBlue, Delta, United, Avianca, LATAM and Equair. GYE is the gateway airport for cruise connections to the Galápagos Islands via Baltra (GPS) and San Cristóbal (SCY), and its cargo terminal is central to the year-round export of Ecuadorian shrimp, cacao, bananas and fresh fish to North America and Europe. Operated under a 40-year concession by TAGSA (Terminal Aeroportuaria de Guayaquil), the airport is named after independence-era poet and politician José Joaquín de Olmedo. A new replacement airport is planned at Daular, 25 km (16 mi) west of the city, but project timelines have slipped repeatedly; in the meantime GYE continues to operate near its 7-million-annual-passenger practical capacity. The airport is a base for Ecuadorian carriers Equair and Avianca Ecuador, and houses substantial maintenance operations for the regional fleet. Guayaquil's role as Ecuador's largest city and principal seaport makes GYE the country's dominant business-aviation gateway, handling roughly 55% of national commercial traffic by value despite lower passenger volumes than Quito, reflecting the disproportionate weight of cargo and corporate travel in its traffic mix.