Payasito Airport

The airport was definitively closed and rendered unusable due to its conversion into a clandestine airstrip ('narcopista') for drug trafficking. In 2017, Honduran security forces, specifically the National Inter-Institutional Security Force (FUSINA), conducted operations in the Farallones, Colón region to disable illegal runways. They achieved this by digging large craters and trenches across the runway, making it impossible for aircraft to land or take off. This action was part of a broader national strategy to combat the flow of narcotics through the country.

The site is completely abandoned and non-operational. Satellite imagery confirms that the former runway is still visibly scarred with the craters and trenches created by security forces to disable it. The area is heavily overgrown with vegetation and is being encroached upon by the surrounding palm oil plantations. The runway is impassable and the site is being slowly reclaimed by the agricultural landscape. It is not used for any aviation or official purpose.

Payasito Airport was originally a private, rural airstrip. Its primary function was likely to support the significant agricultural operations in the area, particularly the vast African palm oil plantations. Such airstrips are vital in remote regions for transporting personnel, specialized equipment, and for aerial crop dusting. Due to its remote location, limited oversight, and proximity to the Caribbean coast—a major drug transit corridor—it was co-opted by transnational criminal organizations. Its historical significance, therefore, shifted from a legitimate agricultural support facility to a notorious logistical point in the illegal drug trade before its destruction by state authorities.

There are no known plans or prospects for reopening Payasito Airport. Given that its closure was a deliberate law enforcement action to neutralize a threat to national security, and its remote location lacks the economic justification for a new, officially sanctioned airport, any chance of it being rebuilt or reopened is virtually nonexistent. The Honduran government's policy is to destroy, not rehabilitate, airstrips used for illicit activities.