Three weeks have passed since the grand opening of the new Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA), one of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's flagship mega-works, but it still has little influx of passengers.
According to the logs last Friday, April 8, consulted by the Reuters agency, of the 14 confirmed arrivals and departures at AIFA, located 45 kilometers north of Mexico City, five were military flights. Meanwhile, in the CDMX International Airport “Benito Juárez” (AICM) there are nearly 900 daily flights.
In other words, operations recorded in one day at AIFA account for 1.5% of daily arrivals and departures at AICM.
Even during April 13, the platforms of the also known as Santa Lucia airport wore the helpless announcement on a screen that announced a single flight arriving from Mérida and with delay.
Since its opening, AIFA has averaged about a dozen flights per day, although the Mexican Army has estimated that the work will serve 2.5 million passengers this year and double that by 2023.
So far, no spokesperson for the new airport has commented on this.
Beyond security personnel, there are still workers building premises for Krispy Kreme and Starbucks, while a traditional souvenir shop and pastry shop have barely opened. In fact, most places are closed and covered with signs that read “coming soon”.
The reality contrasts with the result sold by López Obrador, who called the project “one of the best airports in the world” before the opening.
The president disturbed investors when he canceled the $13 billion Texcoco airport, which was partially built by his predecessor, PRI President Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-2018), arguing that the proposal was full of bribes, was very expensive and poorly located.