With President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador canceling the new partially constructed hub located on the eastern side of Mexico City amidst claims of corruption and the project being too costly, plans for a new airport, located 29 miles away at Santa Lucia, have now been confirmed. According to Reuters, Brigadier General Ricardo Vallejo, head of the military college of engineers, told a news conference the first phase of the airport would be completed by June 2021, adding that its full development potential would not be reached until 2050.
It is understood that the new airport will be constructed by the military and will have an initial capacity for 20 million passengers, rising to a full capacity of 80 million. However certain engineering experts feel that it is unlikely the two hubs will be able to be operated simultaneously. Transport and Communications Minister Javier Jimenez Espriu has rejected this opinion, telling the news conference a third terminal would be added to the Benito Juarez airport where the presidential hangar previously stood. This would raise its current capacity to 50 million passengers a year.
There is still an element of doubt as to whether the new Santa Lucia airport will still be built, despite the fact it will save billions of dollars compared to the estimates US$13 billion for the original project. In December last year, Lopez Obrador said construction on the Santa Lucia hub would start in January 2019. Earlier this week he said construction would begin “next Monday”. At the news conference on Friday he said construction would begin in June, “once we have all the requirements.”
