Mexican army marches toward US$4bn airport opening

Mexico’s 84.9bn-peso (US$4bn) Felipe Ángeles international airport (AIFA), which is being built by the army, is scheduled to open on March 21, 2022, when it will have the capacity to handle 19.5mn passengers per year.  

BNamericas toured the 3,000ha project in Mexico state at the site of the Santa Lucía military airport – about 35km from the existing Benito Juárez international airport (AICM) –  and confirmed progress on the new 3.5km and 2.5km runways, control tower, and passenger and cargo terminals.

The Sedena defense ministry, which is overseeing the project, is working around the clock to meet the deadline. “We currently have 62% of the Felipe Ángeles international airport completed. We expect to conclude it in a timely manner by March 21, 2022, as planned,” says Sedena construction engineer, first captain Martín Méndez Balleza.

The finance ministry recently said that 80.7% of the budget had been executed by July 15, meaning about 68.5bn pesos in public funds spent since 2019. 

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador tasked Sedena with the Santa Lucía project to develop a cheaper alternative to the 285bn-peso Mexico City international airport (NAICM) project that was canceled in December 2018. The government has had to pay 100bn pesos for voided NAICM contracts. 

Works at Santa Lucía started in October 2019, with Sedena handling planning, construction and supervision without any subcontracting. 

While the ministry has awarded several acquisitions and leasing contracts for materials and equipment, everything has been executed through public tenders, says Méndez. BNamericas spotted a cement mixer and truck from Cementos y Concretos Moctezuma at the project site. 

The defense ministry’s role in AIFA will not wrap up next year, as the project involves two expansion phases.  

The first one will more than double capacity to 43.5mn passengers per year and will be completed by 2032; a second and final phase will bring it to 84.9mn by 2052, said lead engineer, Gen. Ricardo Gustavo Vallejo, back in March.

The cargo terminal will initially be able to handle 470,000t/y, with capacity gradually rising to 3Mt/y.

Furthermore, Sedena will also operate the airport once it opens; a state-owned company has been created to manage the facilities. 

López Obrador has added more projects to Sedena’s infrastructure portfolio. The ministry will build another airport at the military airbase in Tulum, in Quintana Roo state. It will also construct stretches six and seven of the 161bn-peso Maya train, in addition to the southern section of stretch five connecting tourism hubs Tulum and Playa del Carmen. 

Asked if Sedena has the capacity to carry out the entire portfolio, Méndez says the priority is AIFA, but that any other project that is required will also be executed.  

AIFA

Méndez repeatedly referred to the airport's 2018 master plan (available here) as Sedena’s main guide. It consisted of 31 projects – including a 310-room hotel, parking lots, a bus terminal and other complementary works.

The publicly available document does not include associated projects that were recently added, such as a 60km aqueduct to supply water to the airbase from Mezquital Valley in Hidalgo state. Sedena told BNamericas the master plan was the most up-to-date version available. 

During the tour, BNamericas saw progress on the 1,300 housing units being built for Sedena's personnel, who will also have a hospital, shopping mall and even a museum on the grounds. 

The housing facilities will be powered by three solar parks, one with a capacity of 1,100kW and the other two with 499kW. 

Works on runways No. 1 and No. 2 for passenger flights are also advancing, while the existing runway for military purposes was modernized and opened by López Obrador on February 10, as the military will continue to use the airport as a base. 

The control tower appeared almost finished, as were the passenger terminal and parking lot, which will connect to the planned 23km Lechería-AIFA rail line – one of 24 projects that will link the airport to Mexico City. Most of these projects are being carried out by other ministries, Mexico City and Mexico state. The connectivity plan for AIFA was presented in March 2020. Sedena is overseeing access roads and connection links to the rail line. 

Several projects such as the control tower, terminal and parking lot were built, in part, with leftover material from NAICM, according to Méndez. “We have reused materials, especially structural steel, reinforced steel, aggregates. These materials have been used at different projects such as the parking lot.” 

AIFA's passenger terminal. Credit: BNamericas

AIFA's housing units.