Chile advances studies on secondary airports plan

Chile is advancing with studies to determine the infrastructure investments needed to modernize its secondary airport network, in order to deal with higher demand from low-cost airlines.

The first set of studies, which involves outlining the investment needs for the airports serving Pucón (Araucanía region), Chillán (Ñuble) and Los Ángeles, was awarded to consulting firm Ferrer y Asociados for 196mn pesos (US$281,000) back in April, according to documents from procurement website Mercado Público.

The studies are scheduled to take 210 days and will include demand, infrastructure needs for low-cost airline operations, identification of infrastructure gaps and how to resolve them and a proposal for a work schedule.

The second contract is expected to be tendered by the end of August, and will entail the studies for the airports of Chaitén, Futaleufú (both in Los Lagos), Cochrane (Aysén) and Puerto Natales (Magallanes) with a 365mn-peso price tag, daily Diario Financiero reported, citing a document from the public works ministry’s (MOP) airport division.

According to documents from the government’s projects database (BIP), after this the next studies to be tendered would cover the airports of Osorno, Chilloé island (Los Lagos) and Viña del Mar (Valparaíso), for a total of nearly 270mn pesos.

However, documents show that the country’s social development ministry (MDS) objected to the proposal for the tender last month.

The ministry argued that the model for the demand studies must be modified and the objectives of the study should be better defined.