Photorico Scenery has recently released their rendition of Mercedita International Airport (TJPS) for Microsoft Flight Simulator, serving the city of Ponce, in Puerto Rico, with a yearly average of 215,000 passengers, making it the third busiest in the country.

It was built in 1939 for airborne irrigation of sugarcane fields (which explains its name, given after the farm it served: Hacienda Mercedita). At first, it was only 260 meters long and 15 meters wide, with its first major upgrade only happening in the 1940s, when the United States Navy transformed it into a military airfield (it was eventually given back to Puerto Rico in 1947).

It became Ponce’s main airport after the authorities determined the previous airport (Losey Field) didn’t meet the minimum safety requirements, leading to plans to construct a new proper airport at Mercedita Airfield. 

It was officially inaugurated as Mercedita Airport in late 1955, with the first scheduled service starting only a decade later, in 1965. The airport did not operate international routes until 1971.

The first runway revamp project began in the early 1960s, extending it to 914 meters and accommodating a wider variety of aircraft. With international plans in mind, though, they had to expand it again in 1971, bringing its length to 1,500 meters so that Boeing 727s could safely fly into the airport. 

The late 1980s brought an even more expressive overhaul, a new runway expansion (2,100 meters), and a remodeled passenger terminal. 

In the early 1990s, the runway was extended by 580 meters so that American Airlines could fly there from Miami. Multiple improvements to the terminal building also added 1,350 square meters of additional space.

The runway underwent further expansion in 2010, reaching its current total length of 2,440 meters, making it suitable for any narrowbody jet aircraft.

It’s served by Frontier Airlines and JetBlue, with flights to Orlando (Florida).

The scenery features an accurate rendition of the airport, with custom PBR textures, custom night lighting, custom landmarks and VFR reference points, custom ground textures, and more.
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It’s available on OrbxDirect for roughly $13.49, requiring at least 362.49 MB of free hard disk space to install.

Stay tuned to Threshold for more flight simulation news!

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