Mexico City's new airport set for bumpy take-off

Mexico City

THREE weeks before facing a midterm recall referendum on Apr 10, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador will on Monday (Mar 21) inaugurate his first major infrastructure pet project - a controversial new airport for Mexico City. Built at a military air base outside the capital, Felipe Angeles International Airport is meant to take the pressure off the city's Benito Juarez airport. But so far only a few airlines have agreed to use it, for a small number of mostly domestic flights.

Benito Juarez, which handled a record 50.3 million passengers in 2019 before the Covid-19 pandemic and is located within Mexico City, is one of the busiest airports in Latin America.

Felipe Angeles, named after a general in the Mexican revolution, divided opinion from the start.

After taking office in 2018, Lopez Obrador cancelled another airport project launched by the previous government that was already one-third complete. He branded the US$13 billion project a "bottomless pit" rife with corruption and decided instead to turn the Santa Lucia military air base into a second airport for the Mexican capital.

Lopez Obrador tasked the military with overseeing construction of the new airport at a cost of around US$3.7 billion.

The army is also involved in construction of a tourist train in the Yucatan Peninsula - another one of the president's major infrastructure projects, which also include an oil refinery in the south-eastern state of Tabasco.

Lopez Obrador has hailed the new airport as an example of his government's austerity and efficiency, with zero cost overruns. "It's a modern airport built by military engineers in record time, at a low cost and with the most advanced technology and quality materials," he said. Airport officials acknowledge that Felipe Angeles is not expected to be profitable until 2026. In the meantime, it will be funded with public money. AFP