Page 24 - OCEAN BLUE - FALL WINTER 2014

FROM THE CHAIRMAN Mexico’s Gateway
to the World
24 www.oceanblueMAGAZINE.com
Nothing can stop Mexican President Enrique Peña
Nieto’s quest. The setback of hurricane ‘Odile’ kept
the president busy during the latter half of September
trying to get the southern Baja community back
on its feet. Now that there has been progress and it is clear the
state is recovering, Mexico’s president can refocus on the biggest
construction project of his political career – a new International
Airport for Mexico City.
Peña Nieto said it will be Mexico’s largest public infrastructure
project in recent years, and called it “Mexico’s gateway to the
world.”
The current airport maximum is 32 million passengers per
year and in the past year there were 31.5 million passengers.
Pena Nieto is quoted as saying that “Mexico couldn’t keep
postponing a solution to the overcrowding at the capital airport,
which regularly exceeds its operating capacity. We’re facing an
undeniable reality: Our airport has reached full capacity and
this restricts movement around the country, limits Mexico’s ties
to the world, puts a brake on trade and investment, and creates
delays for users.”
The new airport will cost around $13 billion dollars; cover
six million square feet over 11,400 acres. The airport design
anticipates the predicted increase in passenger numbers to
2028 and beyond and its development will be the catalyst for
the regeneration of the surrounding area. The president has
promised the airport project will create 160,000 direct jobs. The
funding will be 58 per cent public and 42 per cent private.
The first phase, completion date 2018, includes three runways
which, when in simultaneous use, will be able to serve up to 50
million passengers per year. The airport has an expansion plan
when all six runaways are functioning; enabling a maximum
capacity of 120 million passengers per year. Atlanta’s Hartsfield-
Jackson International Airport, the world’s busiest, handled 94.4
million passengers last year. The new airport will be located
next to the existing international airport on federal land at the
Arroyo of Lake Texcoco, in the State of Mexico.