Incoming leftist President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is stopping a new airport for Mexico City, which he had called "a waste of taxpayers' money" and which was voted down by Mexicans in a referendum.
Image: picture-alliance/AP/E. Verduga
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In a referendum on Sunday, Mexicans were asked to answer the following question: "Given the saturation of Mexico City International Airport, which option do you consider to be the best for the country?" Two choices were given:
A. Repurposing the Santa Lucia military base, a plan that would also mean renovating the current airport and one in neighboring Toluca.
B. Continuing to build the new one and abandoning the old one.
The "people's poll" as Lopez Obrador dubbed the referendum, saw 747,000 votes, or 69.95 percent of participants, voting to scupper the $13 billion (€11.4 billion) project, while 311,132 voted to continue with the new airport project.
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who succeeds Enrique Pena Nieto as Mexico's president on December 1, said Monday he would respect the outcome of the referendum, effectively ending the costly project.
"The decision taken by the citizens is democratic, rational and efficient; the people decided," Obrador said.
Financial blow-back
The winning option, favored by Obrador, is a plan to recondition the existing, overburdened Mexico City airport by adding two runways to the Santa Lucía military airport and improving the airport in the city of Toluca. It has been widely criticized by the private sector, which during four days of consultations with Obrador last week said the new terminal was needed to ease mounting problems at the current airport.
Mexican billionaire businessman Carlos Slim is the main investor in the new airport, and his construction company CICSA was awarded the $ 4.7-billion contract to build the airport's terminal in a consortium with six other companies. "Canceling the project would amount to canceling the economic growth of the country," Slim said in April, when news of a referendum first emerged.
Investors have also expressed alarm that scrapping the project could signal a lack of respect by the incoming president for Mexico's long-term financial commitments.
Contractors have committed about 120 billion pesos ($8.8 billion, €5.6 billion) to the new airport and spent some 60 billion pesos so far, according to the state-controlled airport company GACM. In addition, $9 billion in bonds and $1.6 billion in a real estate investment trust have been issued, meaning the new government could find itself having to sell fresh debt to repay bonds, on top of paying compensation.
Plagued project
Mexico City's new airport, to be built on the site of a dry lake where the capital of the Aztecs was once situated, has been beset by problems. Designed by British star architect Sir Norman Foster, it has been held up by construction delays and charges of massive corruption.
At least 20 percent finished, thousands of tones of concrete have already been sunk into its foundations.
At the same time, environmentalists are criticizing the project as "ecocide" because it endangers the nearby habitat of flocks of geese and other migratory birds. Moreover, there are concerns for the airport's hydrological consequences as the site is reportedly sinking 40 centimeters (15.7 inches) a year, requiring complex engineering.
However, the winning option would have massive implications, too. The Mexican College of Civil Engineers, for example, calculated that reconditioning the Santa Lucia airbase and renovating Mexico City's existing airport would cost 66 percent more than completing the new airport.
The world's biggest airports
Istanbul opened its new airport in 2018, which Turkey says is the biggest in the world. But what is it up against? DW looks at its rivals around the globe.
Image: Presseabteilung Igairport
Hartsfield-Jackson Airport, Atlanta, US
When it comes to passenger numbers, no airport can measure up to the one in Atlanta. Almost 104 million people passed through Hartsfield-Jackson air-traffic hub in 2017, according to data provided by airport association ACI. No other airport has managed to break 100 million. This makes Hartsfield-Jackson number one on our list.
Image: picture alliance/AP Photo/D. Goldman
Beijing Capital International Airport, China
China has its own favorite: Beijing Capital International Airport ranks second in the number of passengers, welcoming 95.8 million people in 2017. The air-traffic infrastructure was built up ahead of the 2008 Olympic Games. UK star architect Norman Foster designed a new, sprawling terminal for the event.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Reynolds
Dubai International Airport
In 2017, Dubai's airport welcomed over 88 million passengers. Almost all of them were non-Arabs — as many as 87.72 million. Many of them apparently appreciate Dubai International for its almost legendary reputation for shopping.
Image: Reuters/A. Mohammad
Tokyo Haneda Airport, Japan
Alas, the Japanese capital is not in the top three, but its airport still boasts 85.4 million visitors per year, enough for a solid fourth place in our ranking.
Image: AFP/Getty Images/K. Nogi
Los Angeles International Airport, US
If you go on vacation to California, chances are you will land at Los Angeles International Airport, better known as the LAX in America. The flow of passengers does not quite measure up to the Atlanta airport, but it still had over 85.5 million visitors last year.
Image: picture alliance/Markus Mainka
O'Hare International Airport, Chicago, US
Even in Chicago, there is no rest from fans for German football star Bastian Schweinsteiger. The former Bayern Munich and Manchester United midfielder now plays for Chicago Fire, and frequently flies through O'Hare. Schweinsteiger is only one of 79.81 million passengers who go through the Chicago hub, which is named after an American WWII pilot.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/T. Shen
London Heathrow, UK
London boasts three airports, the largest and most well known of which is Heathrow. It services just over 78 million passengers per year. And it manages all that with just two runways.
Image: Getty Images/D. Kitwood
Hong Kong International Airport, China
You don't have to be in a plane to sneak a good look at Hong Kong's competitor, called Chek Lap Kok Airport locally. The compound is similarly impressive from a cable car as it may have been for the 72.67 million passengers who travelled through it in 2017. Hong Kong, or "fragrant harbor" in English, is built on reclaimed land on the island of Chek Lap Kok in the South China Sea.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/X. Yun
Shanghai Pudong International Airport, China
Safety first! One of Shanghai's two airports ranks just behind Hong Kong's. Pudong International Airport served 70 million passengers in 2017. This marks a slight drop from the year before, but cargo flights picked up by over 11 percent, according to ACI.
Image: picture-alliance/Imaginechina
Paris-Charles de Gaulle, France
The Paris airport named after President de Gaulle, also known as Roissy airport, comes in at number 10 on our list of busiest air-traffic hubs. Last year, it welcomed 69.47 million passengers. But those figures are not everything in an airport ranking; there are also parameters such as the amount of goods transported, the size, the number of terminals and many more.
Image: AP
Berlin-Brandenburg Airport, Germany
And then there is the amount of time it takes to actually build an airport. In that respect, the Germans might well be No. 1. Perhaps it's simply a question of definition: The nine years that have so far passed since construction began could be seen as evidence of thoroughness.
