Transportation

Transportation is one of Albuquerque’s strengths. With an international airport, rail and two interstate highways readily accessible and 304 days of sunshine a year, shippers are assured of reaching their markets.

Albuquerque International Sunport

Albuquerque International Sunport is one of the best-loved airports among travelers, both for its handsome regional architecture and its permanent art collection. Even the car-rental facility, opened in 2001, has its own art collection. The Sunport recently completed a $10.5 million expansion of the security area. And the airport now offers free wireless Internet access throughout the terminal.

Pilots consider Albuquerque a safe and easy place to land because the Sunport has four runways, more than most cities, and enjoys a good relationship with Kirtland Air Force Base, which handles all fire and rescue.

The Sunport has a U.S. Port of Entry with its own customs facility, so that exporters can ship freight directly and pay duties locally. A third concourse and a federal inspections station will allow visitors from foreign countries to land, pass through customs, agricultural inspections and immigration – all in the same area. And the city is developing a foreign trade zone on 60 acres near the air cargo center. This FTZ would be unusual in its close proximity to international flights, major highways and railways.

Double Eagle II Airport

Double Eagle II Airport on Albuquerque's West Side is a general aviation facility used for training, military, air ambulance, charter, private and corporate flights. It’s slated to become the center of the city’s budding aviation manufacturing cluster, with the development of the Aerospace Technology Park.

Currently the airport has two runways and four fixed-based operations that include training flights, military flights, air ambulance, and charter, private and corporate flights. The city designated Double Eagle a “certified site,” or preferred zoning site, which means the approval process is streamlined for companies locating here.

Eclipse Aviation in 2007 opened its 41,500-square-foot Customer Training Center here, the first step toward what is expected to be a 150-acre campus where the company will make jets. Eclipse in 2008 plans to begin a customer service center.

Rail Service

The Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad, with north-south and east-west lines, hauls 90 percent of freight originating in the state and 80 percent of cargo terminating here.

Albuquerque is a stop on Amtrak’s Chicago-to-Los Angeles route. And the state of New Mexico plans to begin work in 2005 on a commuter rail service between Belen and Santa Fe.

Commuter Rail

The New Mexico Rail Runner currently operates from in the Rio Grande corridor from Belen to Bernalillo with three stops in Albuquerque. The 50-mile route serves 2,500 commuters a day. Launched in 2006, the Rail Runner is one of the fastest commuter-rail start-ups in the nation and has become a model for other states and cities.

In September 2007 the state broke ground on Phase II to Santa Fe to serve another 4,500 workers who commute between Albuquerque and Santa Fe.

Highways

Two interstate highways cross Albuquerque: I-40, one of the nation’s major east-west arterials, and I-25, a north-south route from Canada to Mexico.

In 2002 the state completed a $291 million reconstruction of Albuquerque’s I-25 and I-40 interchange ahead of schedule. It was the biggest public works project in New Mexico history and one of the nation’s 10 biggest highway projects. At that time it was also the world’s fastest construction of a major interchange still supporting traffic.