A look at Camaguey's Ignacio Agramonte Airport (CMW).

Located just six miles northeast of the city of Camaguey in central Cuba, Ignacio Agramonte International Airport (CMW) is one of the largest and pioneering airports on the island.

It currently serves as a key link with the Cuban exile community in South Florida, and might one day become a busy transit airport for long flights between the U.S. and Canadian eastern seaboard and South America--just as it was before the 1959 revolution.

CMW is conveniently positioned in the center of Cuba, close to the path of the Maya and Nuevas international corridors--major routes for air traffic between North and South America.

The airport is located inland, on a high flat plain some 400 feet high. It's linked to the city of Camaguey by the two-lane Nuevitas Highway. That puts it one and a half hours by road from Santa Lucia, which has 800 rooms in three beach hotels.

The roots of Camaguey airport go back to the early 20th century, when an airfield was built to serve the incipient domestic traffic. CMW had its first moment of international fame on June 10, 1933, when the first nonstop transatlantic flight from Spain to the Americas landed here.

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The Cuatro Vientos (Four Winds) aircraft commanded by two Spaniards, Capt. Mariano Barberon and Lt. Joaquin Collar, flew a 40hour, nonstop 4,500-mile route from Seville to Camaguey--setting a record for the longest transoceaniunc flight at that time.

More than a quarter of a century later, Ignacio Agramonte International Airport was again in the spotlight as the take-off point of the plane carrying the late Comandante Camilo Cienfuegos. The young Marxist's plane mysteriously disappeared without a trace on Oct. 27, 1959--a tragedy that has haunted the Cuban revolution ever since.

Used during World War II as a support airdrome for U.S. forces in the Caribbean, Camaguey rapidly became an international airport--second only to Havana--in the postwar years, serving as a transit and refueling stop for planes flying between the U.S. East Coast and South America. After the revolution, CMW lost that role to various airports in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.

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With the growth of tourism in the 1990s as one of the main engines of the economy, Camaguey recovered some importance as a point of entry to Cuba. CMW has an asphalt runway 9,842 feet long by 148 feet wide, capable of accommodating large transcontinental passenger and military aircraft.

It has two separate terminals for domestic and international travelers. There are 10 remote standing positions for large jets, two of them in front of the international terminal.

Traffic is managed with modern aerial navigation equipment, including new radars, precision lighting approach and maneuvering systems, beacons and an instrumental landing system. It can operate any aircraft 24 hours a day.

As nearly all Cuban aerodromes, military infrastructure at Camaguey International is apparent--with jet-fighter shelters, anti-aircraft defenses and a military apron all located on the southern side of the runway.

The airport serves a domestic route between Havana (population 2.1 million) and the city of Camaguey (population 302,000). The development of a secondary tourism hub in the early 1990s at Santa Lucia beach--67 miles to the northeast--boosted airport traffic, prompting the opening of a new international terminal.

That terminal has the nominal capacity to process 600 passengers per hour at its peak (another 75 passengers per hour can be served at the domestic terminal), in eight check-in desks and two gates.

However, these capacities far exceed current traffic at the airport. In 2000, only 90,024 passengers used CMW, falling to 87,067 in 2001 and 78,602 in 2002 (the last year for which statistics are available).

Considering the destruction left by Hurricane Ike at Santa Lucia beach in 2008, there's no reason to expect a sharp departure from these figures. Like the rest of Cuba, foreign travelers at Camaguey consist mainly of Canadians and Europeans.

CMW gets four flights per week (Thursday, Friday and Saturday) from Miami via American Eagle, transporting 500 to 600 Cuban exiles weekly to visit their relatives in the central provinces of Sancti Spiritus, Ciego de Avila, Camaguey and Las Tunas. These provinces are home to 1.7 million people.

In addition, four Canadian airlines--Air Transat, Skyservice, West Jet and Sunwing--provide links to Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Quebec City and Winnipeg.

Because the domestic terminal is separated from the international building at CMW, Cubans and foreign tourists don't share the same space. The international terminal is a steel-and-glass structure designed and built by Ottawa-based Intelcan Technosystems, complete with restaurants, cafeterias, duty-free shops, car rental and travel agencies. By contrast, the domestic terminal is said to be sorely lacking in attention and upkeep.

This is the 6th in an ongoing series of articles on Cuban airports. Previous stories published this year have looked at Santiago de Cuba, Cayo Coco, Holguin and Cayo Largo del Sur airports.

BY OUR HAVANA CORRESPONDENT

DISTANCES TO CAMAGUEY
In nautical miles and hours: minutes

UNITED STATES & CANADA

MIAMI                         265   0:52
KEY WEST                      295   0:53
WASHINGTON D.C.             1,046   2:32
HOUSTON                     1,063   2:34
NEW YORK                    1,171   2:48
TORONTO                     1,338   3:10
OTTAWA                      1,438   3:23
MONTREAL                    1,457   3:25
LOS ANGELES                 2,265   5:10

MEXICO AND THE CARIBBEAN

KINGSTON (JAM)                217   0:43
HAVANA (CUB)                  270   0:50
SANTO DOMINGO (DR)            495   1:20
SAN JUAN (PR)                 691   1:45
CARACAS (VEN)                 901   2:13
MEXICO CITY (MEX)           1,198   2:51

Air travel time at 460 knots speed with 15 min. bias time.

Source: AirRouting.com