The bay of Cartagena de Indias is known for its wide, deep and calm waters and for its year-round, 24/7 accessibility. Strategically, it's a privileged port for international naval merchandise traffic, due to its closeness to the Panama Canal, the Gulf of Mexico, other the ports of the Caribbean and the east coast of the United States. The national activities are made easy because of the river communication with the center of the country through the Magdalena River and the Dique Canal.
    
The exportation frequency from the port of Cartagena de Indias is wide, the traffic days are agile and the freight rates are under the ones offered in other origin ports of Colombia.
Cartagena de Indias is the leading city in Colombia in handling the exportation of containers to the United States, backed up by low costs according to time, distance and the freight that the merchandize cargo implicates from the port of Cartagena to other ports of the Caribbean and the east coast of the United States.

The main shipping companies that offer direct service with previous transshipments in Panama and the Bahamas from Colombia to the east coast of the United States are: Alianca Do Brasil, AAmerican President, CMA-CGM, Compañía Chilena de Navegación, Compañía Sudamericana de Vapores, Dan Gulf Shipping, Evergreen Marine, Frontier Liner Services, Hamburg Süd, Intermarine, Isabella Shipping, King Ocean Service, Maersk Line, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Seaboard Marine y Wallenius Wilhelmsen, with transit times oscillating between 3 to 10 days.

The other main shipping companies that offer service from Colombia to the west coast of the United States are: Compañía Sudamericana de Vapores, Evergreen Marine, Hapag Lloyd, Hamburg Sud, Maruba y Mediterranean Shipping.

ECONOMIC DISTANCE BETWEEN COLOMBIAN CITIES AND PORTS IN THE CARIBBEAN

(Value of internal cargo in US $ / Container 20´. 15 ton)

Source: Araujo Ibarra & Asociados S.A.
*Average to 2 Ports in the Caribbean

GEOGRAPHIC DISTANCE AND TIME COVERED BETWEEN COLOMBIAN CITIES AND PORTS IN THE CARIBBEAN

Source: Araujo Ibarra & Asociados S.A.
*Average to 2 Ports in the Caribbean

EXPORTATION - REGION OF CARTAGENA DE INDIAS BOLIVAR BY COUNTRYOF DESTINY 

Source: Banco De la República - Calculation Unity of Investigations "Cartagena de Indias Puerta de las Américas”

Airport

INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT RAFAEL NUÑEZ

GEOGRAPHIC AND ADMINISTRATION DATA:

The Rafael Núñez International Airport is located north of the city, 5 minutes from downtown, 10 minutes from the tourist area of Bocagrande and 25 minutes from the Industrial Zone of Mamonal. It is administrated by the Airport Society of the Coast S.A, which is a private company that works with Aena International as an operative associate.

Destinos Internacionales

**Charter Fligth

SERVICES AND OPERATIONS SCHEDULE

The airport operates 24 hours daily, including the following services: customs, immigration, airport health system, aeronautical information system, meteorology, fuel supply and airport security.

FIRE EXTINCTION AND RESCUE SERVICE

Category: 8

LANDING RUNWAY AND PLATFORM:

IThe airport has a landing runway at  2.540 meters above sea level, which provides enough capacity to receive modern transatlantic airplanes.

The Rafael Núñez International Airport has asimultaneous parking for 11 aircrafts.

PASSENGERS STATION:

It has a modern and comfortable Passenger Station, air-conditioned in common areas, boarding and luggage rooms, along with a wide variety of shops and services to offer the passengers a pleasant transition: restaurants, cafeterias, souvenirs shops, duty free stores, phone service, terraces and more.

PASSENGERS, LOAD AND OPERATIONS INFO, YEAR 2007:       

Passengers mobilization:
National: 1.143.382

International:  215.703
Operations: 32.630                                        
Tons mobilized load: 6.215

Land Port

The bus station of Cartagena offers a complete structure of comfort for travelers. It is formed by 40 boarding bays, 2 step-off platforms with a capacity for 25 simultaneous vehicles, a closed circuit of security monitored 24 hours a day, hotel, restaurants, ATM's, souvenir shops, taxi cab stations available 24 hours and a line of urban buses.

From the bus station many routes connect the city with other urban centers of the region, the country and South America. There are daily routes to Barranquilla, Santa Marta and La Guajira, and in general to the whole Caribbean Region. There are also routes to Bogota, Cucuta and Medellin. Some companies even offer trips to Caracas, Venezuela.

Private companies of inter-municipal transport have independent parking blocks to board and drop-off passengers. Inside the station, there are restaurants, souvenir shops and phone services. Access to the station is also possible by cab or Metrocar buses, which travel around most of the city areas.