In July 2007, the Aeronautica Civil gave the airport "open skies" designation, meaning that any airline in the world could fly to Barranquilla on any route with any frequency.

At the dawn of commercial aviation in Colombia, airport construction was delegated to airlines wishing to serve that particular city.

British South American Airways also began operating to Barranquilla 1946, using Lancastrians to provide a once-weekly flight to London via Bermuda.

KLM (Department of the West Indies) began operating in Barranquilla with DC-4 aircraft, giving passengers the opportunity to connect with scheduled flights to Curaçao, Netherlands Antilles, Jamaica, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Venezuela and Trinidad.

The workshop was certified by the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) of the United States for the repair and overhaul of all types of domestic and foreign aircraft.

Also, in the early 1950s, a unique system was built for loading and unloading passengers and cargo from DC-4s that drastically reduced the time required by a claimed 50%.

With this system, the DC-4 taxied to where it was in a certain spot and then electric carts on rails that were flush with the runway surface moved the aircraft sideways to the unloading gangways.

[3] With the opening of the El Dorado International Airport in Bogotá in December 1959, Soledad was relegated to secondary importance in the country.

There was hope that this project would put Barranquilla back on the map as an airport served by major international carriers.

Finally, on the afternoon of April 7, 1981, Julio Cesar Turbay, president of the Republic, and Alvaro Uribe Velez, Chief of the Aeronáutica Civil dedicated Barranquilla's new international airport Ernesto Cortissoz.

The design was by architect Aníbal González Moreno-Ripoll and the new terminal was built by the firm Paredes, Fuentes, y Vasquez Ltda.

ACSA was incorporated in the month of December 1996 and its main activity is the administration and economic exploitation of Ernesto Cortissoz International Airport.

This status was granted by the State through the renewable concession contract, number 001-CON-97, concluded with the Special Administrative Unit of Civil Aeronautics for a term of 15 years.

Ernesto Cortissoz Alvarez-Correa was an entrepreneur, born in Barranquilla, which along with four Colombians and three Germans founded SCADTA in December 1919.