Unwinding of Mexico City airport advances

Federal authorities keep moving ahead with shutting down the 285bn-peso (US$14.7bn) international airport that was being built in Texcoco, Mexico state.

Transport and communications minister Javier Jiménez Espriú said on Wednesday that cancellation costs will not exceed 100bn pesos, based on government estimates.

Some 60bn pesos of that sum represent investment already made while non-recoverable expenses by firms that obtained construction contracts are estimated to reach 40bn pesos, the minister was quoted as saying by local paper El Universal.

Jiménez said the Fibra E Trust Certificates that were issued to help finance construction, and for which shareholders accepted early repayment, were "not a good deal" for the government as it had to pay 10% interest for money that remained deposited in a bank.

The Fibra E contracts are not easily terminated, though. Holders got two seats at the board of GACM, the airport state holding, and so have veto power in some of the holding's decisions.

The early repayment is expected to be made on February 28.

Meanwhile, Jiménez and GACM director Gerardo Ferrando are planning to transfer construction materials used at the canceled airport to Santa Lucía military air base (pictured), in Técamac, where a new international airport will be built.

Some of the materials could also be used for works on a trade corridor in the Tehuantepec isthmus region of Oaxaca. Unused materials that already reached the canceled airport's site could prove useful for other infrastructure projects. For example, basalt could be used for the Maya train, while some steel could be used for a new oil refinery in Dos Bocas, Tabasco state.