This is made possible by the year-round stable meteorological conditions, and its distance from both Cali and Palmira, which means it is not subject to any noise restrictions, allowing aircraft to take off and land at any time of day.

Following the war with Peru in 1932, President Enrique Olaya Herrera sought the help of SCADTA engineers and pilots to find a suitable site for an airport capable of providing air support to military operations.

After evaluating several alternatives, the German pilot Herbert Boy chose an area called "El Guabito" because of its location, proximity to the city and an extension of Juanchito Antioquia Avenue.

Eventually, the number of airlines operating from the airport grew to include TACA de Colombia and VIARCO SAETA along with the already established SCADTA Panagra.

The infrastructure required to host an event of this magnitude made both the local and national government agencies broaden their horizons and commit to building the long-awaited and much-needed facility.

The project was beset by operational and financial difficulties, and the central government had to inject a further US$35 million in order to complete the physical construction and meet international aviation safety standards.

Although some critics initially claimed it was unnecessarily large and expensive for the city's needs at the time, air operations and passenger numbers quickly grew, justifying the size and cost of the project.

Even the Business Guilds and the Cali Chamber of Commerce formally requested that the government intercede and force the Civil Aeronautics Agency to change the name back to "Palmaseca".

[3] At the beginning of 1982, Álvaro Uribe Vélez, Director of Civil Aeronautics (then President of Colombia), made the decision to decentralize the management of two important international airports: Palmaseca in Cali and Olaya Herrera in Medellín.

This decentralization was never carried out and only years later the privatization process began In the mid-1980s, part of the international terminal satellite collapsed, causing many criticisms of the design and construction firms of the building.

For this reason, the Aeroclub del Pacifico decided to acquire a large plot of land near the Free Trade Zone, adjacent to header 1–9 to build its new facilities with direct access to the taxiway.