February 14, 1920
In the Republic of Colombia, the first flight at an airport serving the city of Cartagena took place. The pilot for this flight was Jourdanet Jacques René Bazin, who flew a plane named Cartagena in the skies above that Caribbean port city. There were two passengers aboard the plane for this pioneering flight. Eight days later, the airport’s first commercial flight was made when a plane transporting mail traveled from that facility to the Colombian city and district of Barranquilla.
The airport serving Cartagena is named after Rafael Núñez, a lifelong resident of that city. He served as the first president of the Republic of Colombia from 1887 to 1894. Núñez’s other accomplishments included writing the lyrics for the Colombian national anthem.
Rafael Núñez International Airport is Colombia’s fourth largest airport. It is also one of the largest airports in the entire Caribbean region. (The accompanying photo of an aerial view of this airport was taken in 2019.)
Photo Credit: Kidwiki91 (licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en)
Additional information on airports in Colombia is available at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_airports_in_Colombia
Transportation History 
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