On April 21, 1921, Ferruccio Guicciardi flew his Italian-made Macchi-Hanriot HD-1 (named "Telegraph I") from Guayaquil, Ecuador, to Cali, with stops in Quito and Pasto, Colombia. This was the first aircraft ever to land in Cali. He claimed the $9,500 peso prize offered by the Department of Valle and the Cali City Council to the first pilot who landed in the city. This event marked the birth of aviation activity in the capital of Valle del Cauca.

SCADTA

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 Avenue. After levelling the land with bulldozers a fledgling Air Force Base and Air National Guard station were built and operations began on September 21, 1933. 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.

However, Panagra began looking for a suitable place for an airport in order to link South America with Panama through Cali, as well as its domestic flights operated by Avianca. To this end, they acquired land in the municipality of Candelaria, 18 miles from the center of Cali. On April 17, 1947, the modern facilities at "Calipuerto" were inaugurated. The airport passed to the Colombian state in the 1950s and was subsequently taken over by the Civil Aeronautics Department in 1968.

In 1946, the company VIARCO Valle, under the management of Ricardo A. Deeb, implemented an expansion policy including the construction of its own airport in Cali. The airport would be open to all airlines in the country except Avianca. In November 1946, the Aviation Authority requested an inspection of the new "El Limonnar" airport, located in the Pasoancho area of the city. In early 1947, the works were completed at the airport, which was put in service and equipped with the most modern facilities and equipment at that time. LANSA and other smaller companies also moved operations to this airport from the military airport at El Guabito, later renamed the Marco Fidel Suarez AFB. El Limonar was closed in 1954 following a merger between LANSA and Avianca and the subsequent transfer of operations to Calipuerto. The city of Cali, like Bogotá, at that time had three active airports in operation. When the new Palmaseca Airport opened the old Calipuerto buildings and runways were adapted and expanded to house Cavasa, an agricultural and food products distribution centre.

Palmaseca International Airport

The history of the new airport is directly linked to the 1971 Pan American Games, which were held in Cali. 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 Civil Aeronautics Agency had already purchased a large plot of land from Hacienda Palmaseca in the neighbouring town of Palmira. 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. Furthermore, new roads linking the airport to the industrial city of Yumbo and the main Cali - Palmira highway were also built as part of the project.

Palmaseca International Airport was inaugurated on July 24, 1971, during the government of President Misael Pastrana Borrero. It had a 3000m long runway, taxiways, a parking apron, and a main terminal building for domestic and international flights. The terminal was equipped with airline service counters, restaurants, shops, a small hotel and even a nondenominational prayer chapel for nervous passengers. 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. The electronic, communications and safety equipment at the airport was recognized when it was designated as the alternate for Bogotá's El Dorado International. Airport.

In June 1989 local authorities renamed the airport after Alfonso Bonilla Aragón, a local civic leader and journalist who played a prominent role in the approval and construction of the airport. This decision proved highly unpopular with the people of Cali, and there were serious efforts made to reverse the decision. 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".