Francisco I. Portillo (Las Vigas) Airport

The specific reason for closure is undocumented in public records. For small, unpaved, rural airstrips of this nature, closure is typically due to a combination of factors including: economic non-viability, lack of funding for maintenance, the cessation of the specific business it supported (e.g., a large ranch, agricultural operation, or mining exploration), or general abandonment as local transportation needs changed. Its remote location and rudimentary nature suggest it was not sustainable without a dedicated private or commercial purpose.

The site is an abandoned and unmaintained dirt airstrip. High-resolution satellite imagery shows the runway outline is still clearly visible but is in a state of disrepair and is slowly being reclaimed by the surrounding desert scrubland. There is no visible infrastructure on site, such as hangars, a terminal, lighting, or fencing. The area is completely derelict and not used for any official aviation activity.

The airport held local, rather than national, significance. It operated as a small, rural aerodrome (aeropista) serving the general aviation needs of the remote Coyame del Sotol municipality in the Chihuahuan Desert. Its primary function would have been to provide air access for light aircraft to an area with limited ground transportation infrastructure. Operations were likely limited to small, single-engine aircraft (e.g., Cessna, Piper) for purposes such as: transportation for personnel and supplies to large, isolated ranches; agricultural support; access for mining or geological prospecting; and private recreational flying. The ICAO code MX-2056 is an unofficial identifier, likely assigned by aviation data aggregators, indicating it was never part of Mexico's formal federal airport network controlled by AFAC (Agencia Federal de Aviación Civil).

There are no known official or private plans to reopen or redevelop the Francisco I. Portillo Airport. The prospect of it reopening for aviation purposes is extremely low. Re-establishing the airstrip would require significant investment to clear, grade, and compact the runway, and there is no apparent economic demand in the immediate, sparsely populated area that would justify such an expense.