Mexican president to open new airport three years after scrapping alternative (updated)

Copa Holdings

21/03/2022 15:07

(Updates with president, CEO of airport, changes dateline from
Mexico City)
    By Anthony Esposito
    SANTA LUCIA, Mexico, March 21 (Reuters) - Mexican President
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador will on Monday inaugurate a new
Mexico City airport, over three years after he scrapped a
separate $13 billion hub under construction by the previous
government that he cast as a symbol of corruption.
    The military air base north of the capital which Lopez
Obrador has turned into Felipe Angeles International Airport
will start with just a handful of flights. It begins operations
without a train connection, which is due to be ready next year.
    The airport is the first of the major infrastructure
projects planned by Lopez Obrador to be launched, and is aimed
at easing congestion at the current Mexico City hub that lies
approximately 45 kilometers (28 miles) to the south.
    The president held his regular morning news conference at
the airport ahead of the opening ceremony, and quickly rounded
on critics who had questioned whether it would be completed.
    "This work was done in spite resistance from vested
interests and people who wished us ill," said Lopez Obrador, who
is holding a recall referendum next month on his presidency in a
bid to strengthen his democratic mandate.
    The airport was built despite criticism from business groups
that had backed the partly-built hub canceled by Lopez Obrador
just a few weeks before he took office.
    Following a contentious October 2018 referendum he promoted,
Lopez Obrador ditched the unfinished airport in Texcoco on
Mexico City's eastern flank, arguing the project was riddled
with corruption, geologically unsound, and too expensive.
    The decision rattled markets and set the tone for an often
fractious relationship with business under his administration.
    The government spent $1.8 billion paying off the Texcoco
bondholders, adding to costs sunk into the canceled airport,
which the president labeled "pharaonic." He then put the Mexican
army in charge of building the new airport.
    Mexico is mulling possible incentives to encourage airlines
to move operations there from the current Mexico City hub, a
senior official said this month.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL2N2VD2F7
    Isidoro Pastor, chief executive of the new airport, told the
news conference that flights to the United States were expected
to begin in the second half of 2022 via Delta Airlines  DAL.N ,
Copa  CPA.N  Airlines and an unidentified new carrier.
    Some critics of the Felipe Angeles hub have questioned
whether both airports will be able to operate properly
simultaneously. The government is adamant that they well.
    An official website in English for the new airport was not
loading on Monday morning, while a Spanish version opened but
was not showing information on arrivals and departures.
    A Twitter feed for the project said initial flights would be
going to Cancun, Tijuana, Merida, Guadalajara, Monterrey,
Villahermosa in Mexico and Caracas, Venezuela.

 (Additional reporting by Dave Graham and Diego Ore
Editing by Rosalba O'Brien and Bill Berkrot)
 ((dave.graham@thomsonreuters.com; +52 55 5282 7146; Reuters
Messaging: dave.graham.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))