Former Guerrero Negro Airport

The primary reason for closure was replacement and modernization. The former airport was a rudimentary dirt/gravel airstrip with limited facilities, a short runway, and was located very close to the expanding town. A new, superior airport (MMGR) was constructed with a paved runway, modern navigational aids, and the capacity to handle larger and faster aircraft. This was necessary to better support the region's two main economic drivers: the operations of Exportadora de Sal, S.A. (ESSA), the world's largest salt production facility, and the growing international tourism industry centered on gray whale watching in the Ojo de Liebre Lagoon.

The site is completely abandoned and non-operational. Satellite imagery shows the faint but clear outline of the former north-south runway just to the east of the main town. The surface is degraded, unmaintained, and being slowly reclaimed by desert vegetation. The eastern edges of Guerrero Negro's urban development are encroaching on the southern end of the former airstrip. It is unusable for any form of aviation and serves no official purpose.

This was the original airstrip for the company town of Guerrero Negro, which was founded in the mid-1950s. In its active years, the airport was a critical lifeline, connecting the isolated industrial settlement to the rest of Mexico. It primarily handled general aviation, small charter flights, and corporate aircraft for the salt company. It was essential for transporting personnel, urgent supplies, and facilitating medical evacuations before the Transpeninsular Highway was fully paved in 1973. The airport also played a foundational role in establishing the area's now-famous whale-watching tourism, serving the first waves of tourists and biologists who came to see the gray whales.

There are no known plans or prospects for reopening this airport. It is functionally and logistically obsolete, having been fully superseded by the modern Guerrero Negro Airport (MMGR). Given its proximity to residential areas and its rudimentary nature, there is no economic or practical reason to rehabilitate it. The land is more likely to be absorbed by future urban expansion of the town of Guerrero Negro.