(Mexico City) This is one of the major projects entrusted to the army by Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador: the new international airport in the capital México must be inaugurated in less than two months, but risks having no international than the name.
Posted at 9:52
On a military base 40 km north of the capital, the Felipe Angeles International Airport cost 3.6 billion dollars (4.6 billion $ CAD). The work is “87.3% complete,” said Captain Diego Diaz Avila, of the army’s engineering group, during a visit last week.
Both the terminal and the control tower are in place, and one of the three runways already receives military flights.
Workers are busy inside the terminal. In the toilets, reproductions of mariachi and free wrestling bands welcome visitors.
The airport will be able to accommodate 19.5 million passengers a year, Captain Diaz told AFP. An extension of a train and bus line must still connect it to the center of México.
None of the major international airlines has announced its intention to land at this outlying and currently underserved airport.
Consulted by AFP, American Airlines and Air France-KLM confirm that they will continue to operate from the old Benito-Juarez airport, east of Mexico City, not far from the city center.
Before the COVID-19 shutdown, Mexico City International Airport (AICM, its other name) was the busiest in all of Latin America with 50 million passengers in 2019, twice as many as ten years ago.
The AICM still received 36 million people last year. Its exponential frequentation and its risks of congestion can be read in the sky above the “colonies” (districts) of the south of Mexico City, where planes follow one another at very regular intervals descending towards Benito-Juarez.
“We will continue with the International Airport of Mexico City (AICM in Spanish) because our main partner, Aéromexico, maintains its operations there”, adds Air France, ten direct flights per week between Paris and the largest Spanish-speaking city in the world.
The partners of Air France and Aeromexico, KLM and Airlines, will also remain in the two terminals of the AICM.
“We have no changes to our operations at this time,” said a spokesperson for American Airlines, which flies 13 daily between Mexico City and US cities.
Army-run companies
Only two companies low cost Mexican companies, Volaris and Viva Aerobús, have announced flights to and from Santa Lucia (the new airport’s other name).
Volaris will serve Cancun and Tijuana, and Viva Aerobus, Guadalajara and Monterrey, the two main cities in the country after Mexico City.
“These are very commercial routes, in great demand in our country”, underlines Brian Rodríguez, analyst in the aeronautical sector.
The new airport is one of the major projects of the “sexenio” (single six-year term) of Lopez Obrador, with the Maya tourist train in the Yucatan peninsula.
These major works are entrusted to the army for their execution and administration. The new airport like the Maya tourist train “will be part of a company managed” by the Ministry of Defense, the president had warned at the end of November.
The new airport already has quite a story behind it.
Former President Enrique Pena Nieto (2012-2018) had launched the construction of a new airport right next to the old one, at a cost of 13 billion dollars (16.6 billion $ CAD) according to Lopez Obrador .
The project, built on the ancient pre-Hispanic lake of Texcoco, has literally taken on water since.
When he came to power, Lopez Obrador organized and won a referendum to demand the cancellation of this pharaonic project.
“We will keep the commitment to inaugurate the General Felipe Angeles International Airport on March 21,” the left-wing nationalist president repeated recently. Videos of the progress of the work are regularly shown during its almost daily press conference.