María Elena Airport

Replacement and Obsolescence. The airport was a basic, unpaved airstrip. The dominant regional operator, mining company SQM (Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile), constructed the modern, paved Barriles Airport (SCBE) about 35 km to the northwest to better serve its expanding operations in both María Elena and Tocopilla. The new airport offered superior facilities, a paved runway capable of handling larger aircraft, and better logistical positioning, making the old María Elena airstrip redundant.

The site is abandoned and derelict. Satellite imagery shows the faint outline of the unpaved runway is still visible, but it is not maintained and is being slowly reclaimed by the desert. There are no buildings or infrastructure remaining on the site. It is not used for any formal purpose and is simply open, unused land owned by the mining company.

The airport, more accurately an aerodrome, was a private airfield primarily serving the nitrate mining operations of María Elena, one of the last active nitrate company towns ('oficinas') in the world. Its main purpose was to provide a vital air link for the remote community and the SQM mine. Operations were limited to light aircraft and focused on transporting personnel (executives, engineers), delivering urgent spare parts for mining equipment, and facilitating medical evacuations from the Atacama Desert to larger cities like Antofagasta or Calama. It was an essential piece of infrastructure for the isolated mining town before the construction of the more advanced Barriles Airport.

Effectively zero. There are no known plans or prospects for reopening the María Elena Airport. Its replacement, Barriles Airport (SCBE), is a far superior facility that fully serves the region's needs. There is no economic, logistical, or operational justification to invest in or reactivate this obsolete and primitive airstrip.