After nine years, the original name was reestablished after the fall of the dictatorship of Panama by the U.S. The name of the airport was changed in 1981 by the military government to Omar Torrijos International Airport, in honor of the Panamanian leader who died on July 31, 1981, at the age of 52 in a plane crash in Cerro Marta, Coclesito in very bad conditions. The Tocumen International Airport is one of the few airports in the region that has two landing runways able to serve the largest commercial aircraft operating today. The current passenger terminal was inaugurated on August 15, 1978, and operations began on September 5 of the same year. In order to build the structure that currently houses the current passenger terminal, a lot of soil had to be moved and the bed of the Tocumen river had to be diverted from its original site. These circumstances compelled the aeronautical authorities at the time to consider expanding the airport. As time passed, and due to Panama's role as a country of transit, that terminal became too small to attend to the growing demand for air operations. The old airport building, which currently is being used as a cargo terminal, was built on an area of 720 ha (1,800 acres) and was 126 ft (38 m) above sea level. The administrative building/passenger terminal was inaugurated seven years later, during the administration of Colonel José Antonio Remón Cantera. Tocumen International Airport was inaugurated on June 1, 1947, by President Enrique Adolfo Jiménez, and airport operations began before the construction works were completed. The 37th Pursuit Group at Albrook Field replaced the P-40 Warhawks of the 28th Pursuit Squadron at the Paitilla Point airbase from 9 December 1941 though 26 March 1942 in the immediate aftermath of the Pearl Harbor attack. Several airports were built to protect the Panama Canal from foreign aggression. The nearest airport to Tocumen was the Paitilla Point Airfield. ( July 2016) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)ĭuring World War II, Panamanian airports were leased exclusively by the U.S. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. This section needs additional citations for verification.

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