Mexico City airport ready by 2022 - if construction continues

The international airport currently under construction east of Mexico City will not start operations as planned on October 20, 2020, according to the project manager, US construction and engineering firm Parsons.

The study is included in a list of documents that president-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador unveiled Friday as part of a review his infrastructure team conducted in the run-up to the public consultation process that will decide the airport's fate.

Based on a timetable in the Parsons report, the airport will be operational in July 2022, with some of its main infrastructure components not finished until well into 2021.

In the case of the airport's terminal, built by a consortium led by local firms ICA and CICSA, construction works are expected to be completed until August 2021. Overall, the terminal is currently 12% complete. Once finished, operational tests will be conducted through the second quarter of 2022.

Meanwhile, the multimodal transport center, which is also 12% complete, is expected to be finished by February 2021. The control tower, which according to contract must be completed by March next year, is 30% complete.

Runways 2 and 3 are scheduled to be completed in May 2019, with respective construction progress currently standing at 63.3% and 51.8%.

With 61.1% overall progress, runway 6 is expected to be completed in September this year, while the aprons will not be ready until November 2020, after having reached the 2% mark so far.

Works that are completed to date are a site for future operator GACM offices, the 8.8km temporary construction drainage, a 38km perimeter fence, works related to levelling and cleaning of the site, temporary access roads, the cargo rail line to transport construction materials, and an access road to connect to the Peñon-Texcoco highway.

Another GACM document which AMLO released puts the airport's current price tag at 285bn pesos (US$15bn).