Construction of a new airport on land adjacent to the Mexico City international airport, AICM, is expected to cost $120 billion pesos ($1.2 Billion USD), said transport and communications (SCT) minister Gerardo Ruiz during a presentation of the country’s national infrastructure plan 2014-18.
The 7.7 trillion-peso national infrastructure plan unveiled by the government Monday “does not include (the cost) of new airport installations that are currently being evaluated,” said Ruiz.
Mexico’s civil aviation authority, DGAC, declared the airport officially saturated in April last year and so no additional routes can be opened despite growing passenger demand.
The SCT announced planned in December last year to build a new airport on federal land adjacent to AICM, and has since invited a series of international architecture firms, in partnership with local firms, to design the new airport.
Seven firms, including British architects Zaha Hadid, Norman Foster, Richard Rogers and local architect Teodoro González de León have submitted designs for the project, reported architecture magazine Arch Daily.
In a sign that a new airport might be concessioned rather than owned and operated by state airport operator ASA, Ruiz confirmed that the investment would be drawn from “public resources and private resources.
Construction of a new airport for Mexico City is “inescapable,” according said Luis Zárate, president of the Mexican construction chamber, CMIC.
The SCT will be in charge of projects worth 1.32tn pesos. And while many of the large projects have already been announced, Ruiz did unveil a series of new projects.
Key projects include expansion of Lines 4 and 9 of the Mexico City metro systems, construction of mass transit systems for Merida and Torreón and the construction of 1,932km of new cargo rail lines. Existing rail concessionaires are also expected to build a further 1,560km of rail lines with their own resources.
The SCT also plans to carry out the modernization of 20 airports across the country, including Cancún, Chetumal, Jalapa, Toluca and Tlaxcala.
