Construction of the federal government’s new airport in México state will begin Monday, President López Obrador announced today (wednesday), just as an official report came out warning that it could reach saturation just 10 years after starting operations.
“I’ll say in advance, because my chest isn’t a storeroom and I always say what I think, that we’re going to start construction of the new airport next Monday,” the president said at the inauguration of the 2019 Aerospace Fair.
The fair is being held at the Santa Lucía Air Force Base, which will be converted into a commercial airport that is expected to begin operations in 2021.
López Obrador said the 78-billion-peso (US $4.15-billion) airport will be named after Felipe Ángeles, a military hero of the Mexican Revolution.
He explained that there are 3,000 hectares of land available for construction at the Santa Lucía site whereas the current Mexico City airport has just 600 hectares.
“We’re talking five times the surface [area],” López Obrador said, adding that unlike the ancient lakebed in Texcoco, México state, where the cancelled Mexico City airport project was being built, the Santa Lucía site is “solid ground”…
