Ready for landing: Mexico City airport expansion could make it one of largest in world
| Mexico City
President Enrique Pe帽a Nieto announced plans Tuesday to build a new airport in听听that can handle four times the traffic of the existing one, the second busiest in听
The new airport will have six runways and is projected to cost $9.1 billion.
President Pe帽a Nieto said the airport 鈥渨ill be the biggest infrastructure project in our country in many years and even one of the biggest in the world.鈥�
It will be built on vacant federal land to the east of Benito Juarez International Airport, which handled about 31.5 million passengers last year.
Pe帽a Nieto, in a 90-minute annual address to the nation, said Mexico couldn鈥檛 keep 鈥減ostponing a solution鈥� to the overcrowding at the capital airport, which regularly exceeds its operating capacity.
The bottlenecks at the airport 鈥渞estrict movement around the country, limit Mexico鈥檚 ties to the world, put a brake on trade and investment, and create delays for users,鈥� Pe帽a Nieto said.
When engineers finished work on the existing airport in 1952, the capital had only 3 million residents. Since then, the metropolis has swollen to more than 20 million inhabitants, partially engulfing the airport, which occupies a dry lake bed.
A second terminal was added in 2007, but only two runways serve both terminals and they can鈥檛 be used simultaneously. The airport, which is Latin America鈥檚 second busiest, after Sao Paulo鈥檚 Guarulhos International Airport, has surpassed the 340,000 annual takeoffs and landings experts say it鈥檚 capable of handling, hitting 389,226 last year.
That means aircraft take off and land at a pace of nearly one per minute during peak periods. The airport is less than three miles from the capital鈥檚 main square, and the standard landing approach has jetliners skimming over the city.
An annual report given by Pe帽a Nieto鈥檚 government to Congress on Monday didn鈥檛 say how long it would take to build the new airport, which will arise on some 12,500 acres of mostly vacant land around the largely dry Lake Texcoco that鈥檚 contiguous to the current facility. [The new airport will be near the site where the Mexican government attempted to build a new airport in 2002. It failed after local farmers, wielding machetes, launched protests over the expropriation of their land for the new airport.]
Once built out to a capacity of 120 million passengers a year, the new airport could be one of the largest in the world, depending on the pace of growth at busy airports in places such as听听Dubai, Beijing and Atlanta. Atlanta鈥檚 Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the world鈥檚 busiest, handled 94.4 million passengers last year.
罢丑别听听airport handles a third of air passengers in Mexico and more than half of all airfreight. It鈥檚 more than twice as busy as the airport in the Caribbean resort city of Cancun.
The Mexican Institute on Competitiveness, a research center that promotes free-market ideas, issued a report last week demanding action on expanding the airport.
鈥淭he current maximum capacity of the airport is 32 million passengers. But last year, it moved 31.5 million!鈥� the institute鈥檚 report said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e facing an undeniable reality: Our airport has reached full capacity.鈥�
Pe帽a Nieto said his government would offer more details about the new airport Wednesday.
It鈥檚 already studied bids for the design, including one from British architect听听who drew up plans for Beijing鈥檚 international terminal, the world鈥檚 largest at the time of construction.
听Additional reporting contributed by 海角大神.
