Puerto Barrios Airport
airport in Guatemala
Puerto Barrios Airport (Spanish: Aeropuerto de Puerto Barrios, IATA: PBR, ICAO: MGPB), formerly Izabal Air Base (Base Aérea de Izabal), serves the city of Puerto Barrios, the port of Santo Tomás de Castilla and the Guatemalan Caribbean. It is operated and administrated by Dirección General de Aeronáutica Civil (DGAC).
History
Puerto Barrios Airport is located in the northern part of the city of Puerto Barrios, near the shore of Amatique Bay.
In the 1920s and 30s Puerto Barrios was a seaplane destination only; a first concrete runway was built by the United States Government during World War II for strategic reasons. It was later used by the Guatemalan Air Force, known under the name "Base Aérea de Izabal". In 2002, the airport was equipped with a VOR-DME radio beacon with the help of COCESNA, the Central American Corporation for Air Navigation. Being located near the port of Santo Tomás de Castilla, today the airport is of special interest for cruise ship operators, who carry passengers to important attractions throughout the country on chartered flights. Puerto Barrios has always been a logistics center, which is emphasized in the city seal, which depicts a ship, a train, an airplane, and a truck.
In January 2017, the airport was undergoing renovations. The DGCA was investing 1.5 million Guatemalan quetzals into the project, which it expected to complete by 28 March.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Puerto Barrios Airport” as airport in Guatemala. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the places & architecture register because the source frames it as airport in Guatemala. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3495535. Authority coordinates are 15.731, -88.584. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2002 and 2017.
Architectural summaries often privilege surviving fabric and can understate demolished phases, contested use or displaced communities. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. 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.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Puerto Barrios Airport”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Puerto Barrios Airport primary sources, Puerto Barrios Airport archive and Puerto research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Puerto Barrios Airport”?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Puerto Barrios 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.