Member's Home Forums General Discussion Mexico Mexico Airports MMSL - Cabo San Lucas *** URGENT *** Rescue Flights Cabo San Lucas, MEX

While the San Jose del Cabo airport remains closed to General Aviation flights, the Cabo San Lucas Airport is open for all types of General Aviation flights. We have been in contact with Mexican authorities and airport owners to keep tabs on the situation. The following is the latest information as of this morning:

As of today, September 18, 2014 all services at the MMSL Cabo San Lucas airport in Baja California Sur have been reestablished and authorities are present to receive flights. Runway, lights and ramp are all in good condition. Tower is working. There is enough fuel for at least 2 weeks. The DGAC has cancelled the previous NOTAM and MMSL is now open for all GA operations.

Conditions in Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo are dire, there is no water, electricity and food is running low. If you have friends or relatives that you would like to rescue, you should use the MMSL airport.

In addition, the La Paz and Loreto airports (MMLP, MMLT) have also resumed normal operations for all types of flights. However, MMSL is by far the closest to the Los Cabos area.

For assistance in coordinating rescue flights or more information, contact Caribbean Sky Tours at 1 786 206 6147.

The emergency has been caused by Odile, a category 3/4 hurricane which hit the Los Cabos area during the night of Sunday the 14'th and into the morning of the 15'th.

The aftermath of a hurricane of this intensity can be very unpleasant and difficult for residents and tourists alike. There is no lodging, no electricity, no water, no refrigeration, no food, no telephones, no windows, everything is wet, mosquitos, looting etc. For visitors, the resort that existed when they arrived has been transformed overnight into a disaster zone, they just want to get their family out as fast as they can. For local residents, all that they owned may be gone forever and they have very limited resources to help them get back on their feet.

We spoke with the owner of the Cabo San Lucas airport who confirmed what we are seeing here in Mexico from the local news media. The situation in Los Cabos is very difficult.

We are currently assisting pilots who wish to make relief flights to MMSL to take supplies down and/or extract loved ones or company employees. We are happy to assist anyone else wishing to do so.

For those landing at MMSL, they are currently operating under VFR for arrivals and departures.

Regrettably, there is bad information being disseminated which some pilots have relayed to us.

To clarify, the Cabo San Lucas Intl. Airport (MMSL) is open WITHOUT any restrictions nor need of any prior permission. It is San Jose del Cabo (MMSD) that is restricted to humanitarian aid only and requires prior permission. This has been confirmed with SENEAM to be sure that ATC is not requiring something that is incorrect. The ONLY restriction for MMSL is that it is limited to VFR ONLY operations which by default also means daytime operations as there is no night VFR in Mexico.

When communicating with SENEAM or the DGAC be sure that you say "Cabo San Lucas" and not "Los Cabos" nor "San Jose del Cabo" these are technically two very different airports. You must be very specific because they will typically assume that you are talking about MMSD. Both airports are international, towered and have instrument approaches (when there is electricity). They both have runways capable of handling Boeing 737's so operationally they are similar. However, MMSL is privately owned and has the freedom to dictate how they operate.

We hope that needed supplies or stranded people were not prevented from reaching their desired destinations because of this bad information.