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Comodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport, located in Santiago, Chile, is Chile's largest aviation facility. It has the IATA Airport Code SCL.
The airport is the hub for several Chilean airlines including Chile's largest national and international airline, Lan Chile, LanExpress, and the maligned Aerocontinente Chile which has been the subject of a drug trafficking investigation by Chilean police. The airport used to be the main hub for Ladeco, another major Chilean international airline, since acquired by Lan Chile.
No major airline accidents have happened at the site, but this has not stopped tragedy from knocking at the doors of the airport. In 1972, a propeller-plane chartered by an Uruguayan rugby team, from the country's air force, crash-landed on the Chilean side of the Andes while en route to the airport, leaving many people dead and others to die days later. The survivors of the accident (who were travelling to Santiago to play a rugby match) and the stories they experienced during the months stranded in the high-Andes, became the subject of a 1993 Hollywood movie Alive: The Miracle of the Andes. See Andes flight disaster.
On October 2, 1996, AeroPeru Flight 603, a Boeing 757 that was enroute from Lima's Jorge Chavez International Airport to Santiago, Chile crashed into the Pacific Ocean. Everyone on board died.
Airlines serving Arturo Merino Benitez International Airport include:
- Aerolíneas Argentinas
- Aeroméxico
- Air France
- American Airlines
- Copa
- Cubana De Aviacion
- Delta Airlines
- Lacsa
- Iberia
- Lan Chile
- Lanexpress
- Lloyd Aereo Boliviano
- Martinair
- Pluna
- Swiss International Air Lines
- Tame
- United Airlines
- Varig
External link
- Official web site (http://www.aeropuertosantiago.cl/)es:Aeropuerto Internacional Comodoro Arturo Merino Benítez