Kino Nuevo Airstrip

Replacement and redundancy. The Kino Nuevo Airstrip was a basic dirt runway. To boost tourism and improve infrastructure in the popular coastal destination of Bahía de Kino, the Sonoran state government invested in building a modern airport just a few kilometers to the southeast. The new facility, Kino Bay Airport (MM42), features a paved runway, lighting for night operations, and better facilities, making the old dirt strip obsolete and unnecessary.

The site is completely abandoned as an airfield. Satellite imagery shows the clear outline of the former north-south runway, but it is heavily degraded and unmaintained. The land is now crisscrossed by numerous informal vehicle tracks and is used as an open space and unofficial road by locals. The town of Bahía de Kino is gradually expanding, with development encroaching on the perimeter of the former airstrip.

For many years, the Kino Nuevo Airstrip was the primary air access for general aviation into Bahía de Kino. It was a simple, unpaved runway that catered to private pilots and small charter operations. Its main function was supporting the local tourism industry, serving as a convenient landing spot for American and Mexican tourists, particularly sport fishermen and vacation homeowners, who flew in with small aircraft like Cessnas and Pipers. Operations were limited to daylight hours and good weather (Visual Flight Rules). The airstrip was instrumental in establishing Kino Bay as a fly-in destination before the development of more substantial infrastructure.

There are no known plans or prospects for reopening the Kino Nuevo Airstrip. Its function has been entirely and permanently superseded by the superior and fully operational Kino Bay Airport (MM42) nearby. Given the existence of the new airport and the urban encroachment on the old site, there is no economic or logistical justification for its reactivation. The land is more likely to be repurposed for urban development in the future.