Lima's US$2bn Jorge Chávez airport expansion unlikely to start ops as planned

Lima's US$2bn Jorge Chávez airport expansion is unlikely to start operations as planned on March 30.

Although overall progress is 99.4%, the implementation and verification of security systems like fire alarms and flight tracking remain pending and will require more time.

Moreover, work on temporary access roads Vía Expresa and Ovalo Santa Rosa is progressing slowly and depends on the transport and communications ministry. Regulating traffic in the notoriously busy port district of Callao will also be difficult.

"I don't think we can wait much longer to know if it will be ready by March 30. It will depend on the safety tests that have been conducted and are still ongoing. As for the access side, the works will not be resolved in the coming months or next year. It will be a problem even when the airport is operational," Juan José Cárdenas, infrastructure lawyer at Damma Legal Advisors, told BNamericas.

Despite the difficulties, concessionaire Lima Airport Partners (LAP) vowed to comply with the deadline.

"The complaints between LAP suppliers and the company are irrelevant to us because the one who is responsible is the concessionaire. The airport must be operational by March 30 [and] if it is not, there will be sanctions against LAP," Verónica Zambrano, president of transport regulator Ositran, told radio station RPP.

The broadcaster reported on leaked letters in which suppliers announced that it will not be possible to complete the work by the deadline. LAP faces penalties if it doesn't open the expanded airport on time.

"The new terminal still needs to implement most of the systems, not just the security ones. This work officially started in October 2024, and will take at least a year," an aeronautical sector specialist, requesting anonymity, told BNamericas.

The source claimed operations cannot start before September.