Quetzalcoatl From Mexico, joined Dec 2003, 91 posts, RR: 0 Posted (9 years 5 months 3 days 13 hours ago) and read 1519 times:
Ever since I started my aviation infatuation, I've always known that Torreón International Airport was named Francisco Sarabia, after a Mexican pilot who was born in Cd. Lerdo, Durango, (5 miles from Torreón) and was the first to fly non-stop from México to Washington.
However, in oficial data, Francisco Sarabia is the name of Tuxtla Gutiérrez Airport. (http://www.worldaerodata.com/wad.cgi?id=MX40337).
Went to Torreón last month. Just before take off, the flight attendant says "Bienvenidos abordo del vuelo 202 de la Cd. de Mexico, con destino final en el aeropuerto internacional Francisco Sarabia en la cd. de Torreón"
(roughly transalated as "welcome aboard flight 202 From Mexico City to Francisco Sarabia International airport in Torreón")
JoseMEX From Mexico, joined Oct 1999, 1539 posts, RR: 29 Reply 1, posted (9 years 5 months 3 days 12 hours ago) and read 1501 times:
Intriguing question, I must say. First a bit of history: even though F. Sarabia was born in the Laguna region and he started flying there, he later moved to Chiapas where (with his brothers) he started an airline ("Compañía Hermanos Sarabia") based at Tuxtla Gutierrez, which apparently played an important role in the development of that region. You can read about it here:
So, as you can see, both places have a valid reason to name their airport after the man. However, even though they usually refer to TRC's airport as "Francisco Sarabia", apparently the one that is really, oficially called that (at least by world aviation organizations) is TGZ.
BUT any other aviation literature that I've been able to find (ICAO codes, my Jeppesen route charts, and anything from international aviation organizations or associations) refer officially to TGZ as "Francisco Sarabia" and to TRC as "Torreon International".Even the database used by the X-Plane flight simulator program to load the airport you want to fly from/to refer to TRC as "International" and TGZ as "Francisco Sarabia". I'm sure the situation with MS Flight Simulator is the same.
So, there you have it. I was not able to answer your question 100%, but at least I kept you entertained for about three or four minutes.
Quetzalcoatl From Mexico, joined Dec 2003, 91 posts, RR: 0 Reply 2, posted (9 years 5 months 3 days 12 hours ago) and read 1498 times:
JoseMEX
Same thing here. I've been checking aviation literature for almost a year now, and I have not found anything pointing to Torreón as Francisco Sarabia.
Nevertheless, everyone calls it by that name.
JoseMEX From Mexico, joined Oct 1999, 1539 posts, RR: 29 Reply 3, posted (9 years 5 months 3 days 12 hours ago) and read 1492 times:
>> and I have not found anything pointing to Torreón as Francisco Sarabia.
Nevertheless, everyone calls it by that name.<<
Ohhh, the heartbreak and tears when they finally find out that they've been calling their airport the wrong name all this time!!! Even worse, apparently it doesn't even have a real, "human" name!!!!
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