Aéreocalafia are discussing starting a route flying from San Felipe to Tijuana: El Crisol
Not a done deal, just discussions. Currently there are no commercial flights from San Felipe
Aéreocalafia are a small domestic regional airline with various routes in Baja and nearby on the mainland.
RobDavid K - 6-12-2010 at 09:04 PM
An airline (using Twin Otters) briefly ran flights from Tijuana and Mexicali pre-1972 and used the runway along the Playa Blanca road, north of town.
Until the paved airport was built south of town in '74 (and opened much later), the Playa Blanca runway at 3,700' was the best one in the region.
Playa Blanca
MrBillM - 6-12-2010 at 09:44 PM
The Drug-Runners thought so, too.akshadow - 6-13-2010 at 12:04 PM
In the late 1990's there was scheduled service from San Felipe to San Diego, Brown Field. It did not last. I used the service once from San Felipe
to San Diego. It was very inconvenient because I ended up at Browns Field and then needed to get to the other airport to catch a flight.
The pilot said landing at San Felipe was very expensive by the time they paid the mordida and other "fees" that were imposed in San Felipe.
On the whole I believe the airline did not have a good business plan and the "costs" of operating in Baja were too high.
Maybe an airline that was based in Mexico could avoid some of these problems but it would only make it more inconvenient for flight connections.Riom - 6-13-2010 at 01:53 PM
Quote:
Originally posted by akshadow
In the late 1990's there was scheduled service from San Felipe to San Diego, Brown Field. It did not last.
There was also the Grey Eagle semi-scheduled service in around 2006-7. The problem with that one was they were supposed to be getting financial
support from the San Felipe developers association, which I believe stopped too soon if it happened at all.
Aéreocalafia are probably in the best position of any airline to offer a service, as they already fly to lots of small airports in the area so are
used to the challenges that brings. And being purely domestic they avoid the extreme red tape of the US.
Still, I would also prefer flights to somewhere in the US (or Canada) - odd there are none at all from TIJ either!
If Aéreocalafia do pioneer the San Felipe airport that might help put the facilities in place for a US airline to try it, eventually.
Robbajalou - 6-13-2010 at 02:04 PM
Any airline trying to operate from San Felipe has to have passengers. That has been the problem of the ones that tried. Aand I still can't imagine
enough demand to make a scheduled service pay.
Unless a intermediate stop on a longer route.Bajahowodd - 6-13-2010 at 04:39 PM
San Felipe suffers much the same as does Loreto. Just not all that much demand. Difference is that Loreto does have a modern airport, which is likely
why the Villa Group decided to build a massive timeshare project just down the road. Just across the SOC, Rocky Point has developed massively, and
recently did build an airstrip that can accommodate jets.
