The base is situated 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Tegucigalpa, in the central department of Comayagua.
According to reports yesterday in the local press, the proposal has already been submitted to the National Congress by the congressmen for Comayagua, Santa Bárbara, Cortés and Yoro, the latter three departments all having borders with the first.
The politicians believe that the base should be converted into a commercial airport handling the transport of both goods and passengers.
The base is currently used by a Honduran aviation school and American soldiers who participate in training exercises, anti-drug traffic operations and civil action campaigns in conjunction with the Honduran Army.
Currently there are 400 U.S. soldiers stationed at Palmerola, who are rotated every three or four months.
The congressmen assure that the Honduran Ministry of Defense and U.S. Army will be able to continue the base's military functions in tandem with civil operations.
The military base was originally built at a cost of $30 million with a runway capable of handling all types of military and civilian air traffic.
During the '80s, over 100,000 U.S. soldiers were stationed at the base: at that time, Washington used Honduras as the base for its Central American anti-communism program, from small exercises to large-scale operations over the Nicaraguan border.
The airport would become Honduras' fifth international airport, after Toncontín, in Tegucigalpa; San Pedro Sula; La Ceiba; and the airport on the beautiful Caribbean island paradise of Roatán.
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