Narayan AmmachchiMexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO) has opened a new international airport in Mexico City amid criticisms that the new facility would not be able to ease congestion at the capital city’s main hub, Benito Juárez International Airport (BJIA).
The new Felipe Angeles International Airport, is located more than 45 miles away from the city. It has no rail link, nor is there an expressway for passengers to access it easily.
The only flight scheduled for the near future is from Caracas, Venezuela. Reports suggest that President Lopez Obrador may offer incentives to attract carriers to move operations to the new airport.
Built on an abandoned military airbase, the airport is projected to handle 20 million passengers annually. Once the second phase of construction is over, it will be able to handle 40 million passengers, say analysts.
The previous government had planned to build the airport in Texcoco, a place barely 5 miles away from the BJIA. But AMLO scrapped the plan, although the project had already consumed billions of dollars and was halfway through. He argued that the project was riddled with corruption and too expensive.
AMLO says the new airport could cost him around US$3.6 billion, but analysts put the price at US$5.6 billion.
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