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Research dossier · Places & Architecture

Colonel Carlos Concha Torres Airport

airport serving Esmeraldas, Ecuador

Architectural plans, a scale model, maps and brass measuring instruments
Places and architectureInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 7, 2026
Entity authorityQ2374108 ↗
Source-derived summary

Colonel Carlos Concha Torres Airport (Spanish: Aeropuerto Coronel Carlos Concha Torres) (IATA: ESM, ICAO: SETN) is an airport serving the Pacific coastal city of Esmeraldas, capital of the Esmeraldas Province of Ecuador. It is 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) east of the city, across the Esmeraldas River in the parish of Tachina. Established in 1940 as General Rivadeneira Airport, the airport was renovated between 2012 and 2013, receiving a new terminal and a lengthened runway.

History

The airport was established on 25 March 1940, upon the upgrading of the runway. It was originally named in honor of José Enrique Rivadeneira, an inspector general of the Ecuadorian navy who died in a 1939 plane crash.

The Ecuadorian government renovated the airport in 2014 as part of a plan to modernise the country's airports and attract more tourists and businesses to Ecuador. It also held a contest in which the people of Esmeraldas voted on a new namesake. Carlos Concha Torres (es), an army commander who led a war against President Leónidas Plaza in the 1910s, received the most votes.

The airport also serves international flights to Colombia, which is served by Aeroregional but it was ended years later.

Facilities

The newly constructed passenger terminal was inaugurated on 14 January 2014 by President Rafael Correa.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Colonel Carlos Concha Torres Airport” as airport serving Esmeraldas, Ecuador. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA valuable geographic starting point for tracing changing names, boundaries, uses and administrative responsibility. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1940, 2012, 2013, 1939—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. The account is most persuasive where Colonel, Carlos and Concha can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the places & architecture register because the source frames it as airport serving Esmeraldas, Ecuador. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 7, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2374108. Authority coordinates are 0.979, -79.627. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1940, 2012, 2013 and 1939.

Critical limits

Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.

Best used for
  • Historic place names
  • Jurisdictional context
  • Routes into maps and plans
Verify next

Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Colonel Carlos Concha Torres Airport”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Colonel Carlos Concha Torres Airport primary sources, Colonel Carlos Concha Torres Airport archive and Colonel research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Colonel Carlos Concha Torres Airport”?
  2. What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
  3. Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Colonel Carlos Concha Torres Airport” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.