Ports, Airports, Highways and Rail of El Salvador

Map

Seaports

Unión Portuaria del Pacífico runs both ports under a 50-year agreement with a USD 1,615 million investment plan:¹

Source: El Salvador.com: Acajutla grows 11.2% and modernises¹

• Acajutla, Sonsonate: cargo grew 11.2% in 2025. The wait for container ships fell from about 12 days to under 24 hours between 2025 and 2026, according to the operator and the Ministry of Economy.
• La Unión, on the Gulf of Fonseca: the port received more than 70 ships in 2025, and its operations were up 30% in the first part of 2026.

Source: El Salvador.com: Acajutla grows 11.2% and modernises; Diario El Mundo: Acajutla cuts ship waiting time to 24 hours; Infobae: La Unión port raises its operations by 30%^1,2,3

Airports

• El Salvador International Airport (Monseñor Óscar Arnulfo Romero), at San Luis Talpa, La Paz: more than 5.2 million passengers and 51,000 flights in 2025.
• Air cargo: international air cargo grew 10.7% to 39,784 tonnes in 2025.
• AirCity: an airport free zone being built by Grupo Aristos, with USD 250 million planned; construction started in December 2025.
• Ilopango International Airport, on the east side of San Salvador, is also run by CEPA.

Source: CEPA: the international airport closes 2025 with growth; La Prensa Gráfica: air cargo grew 10.7% in El Salvador last year; Diario El Mundo: construction of AirCity starts at the international airport, December 2025; CEPA: Ilopango International Airport^4,5,6,7

The Pacific Airport

• Where: canton El Ciprés, district of Conchagua, La Unión Sur. Construction began in January 2025.
• Cost: the first phase is budgeted at $386.4 million, with a terminal for about 365,000 passengers a year.
• Progress: in October 2026 the Beta terminal building was 30.14% built; CAF, a lender, put overall progress above 60% in September 2026.
• Opening: the government has said the first phase will be ready in 2027, but neither CEPA nor CAF had confirmed a final date by October 2026.

Source: Diario El Mundo: the Pacific Airport terminal is 30% built, 8 October 2026; El Salvador.com: new images of the Pacific Airport works, 9 October 2026; Infobae: the Pacific Airport passes 60% progress, 16 October 2026^8,9,10

Main highways

The Ministry of Public Works (MOPT) told the Legislative Assembly in October 2025 that it had maintained 7,300 km of roads and rebuilt 1,500 km, with more than 100 bridges built or repaired.¹¹

• Panamericana (CA-1): the main west–east route through Santa Ana, San Salvador and San Miguel to El Amatillo on the Honduran border. More than 33,000 vehicles a day use the San Martín–Cojutepeque section, which carries cargo from Acajutla, El Poy and El Amatillo; its 17 km were rebuilt from October 2025 for $10 million.
• Litoral (CA-2): built between 1954 and 1962, it runs 306 km along the coast from the La Hachadura border to the port of La Unión. FOMILENIO II widened 24 km to four lanes between Comalapa, La Herradura and Zacatecoluca.
• Longitudinal del Norte: the US Millennium Challenge Corporation paid for 219 km of this northern highway, finished in 2011 and 2012, which cut the trip from Guatemala to Honduras through the north from 17 hours to about 6. Its 2022 evaluation found traffic well below the forecasts.

Source: Diario El Mundo: works on the San Martín–Cojutepeque section of the Panamericana, October 2025; La Prensa Gráfica: from Ahuachapán to La Unión, how the Litoral highway was built, 19 October 2025; Millennium Challenge Corporation: connecting northern El Salvador through road improvements, evaluation brief, April 2022^12,13,14

Source: Diario El Mundo: Los Chorros reopens after controlled blasting, 8 November 2026; La Prensa Gráfica: Los Chorros before and after the latest blast, November 2026; Legislative Assembly: the MOPT will continue modernising the national road network, 2026 budget, October 2025; El Diario de Hoy: the MOPT plans to start widening the Litoral highway in January, 12 November 2025; El Salvador.com: FOVIAL announces work on more than 30 roads, with the Manuel José Arce bridge, 16 October 2026; Diario El Mundo: widening the Troncal del Norte, deputies put proposals to the MOPT, 8 November 2026^{15,16,11,17,18,19}

The planned Pacific Train

El Salvador has no passenger or freight railway in service. The Pacific Train was a 2019 campaign promise of President Nayib Bukele. In April 2022 the Legislative Assembly passed laws to simplify its procedures and to build and run it, and the MOPT received bids for its basic design. No construction date or final cost had been announced by November 2026.^20,21,22

• Line 1, first section: 63.15 km from the port of Acajutla to Sitio del Niño, San Juan Opico, partly on the old railway corridor, with 7 stations, 12 river bridges and 17 road crossings, according to AC&A, the Argentine firm planning the project.
• Eastern line: in December 2024 FOSEP lent the MOPT $4.6 million for a Deloitte study of a corridor from Sitio del Niño through San Salvador to La Unión, linked to the dry corridor with Honduras.
• Financing: the government plans a public-private partnership with national funds, private capital and multilateral loans, and expects the investment phase in the 2024 to 2029 term; agreements and funds were still being sought in February 2026.

Source: Diario El Mundo: USD 4.6 million approved for a study of the eastern line of the Pacific Train, January 2025; Infobae: El Salvador bets on the Pacific Train, 14 February 2026^20,22

The route on the map is a simplified line between the published end points, not the design alignment.