Mexico City Airport plan baffles airlines seeking answers

Four months after President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador pledged to scrap a $13b airport project for Mexico City, the airline industry is bursting with questions about his plan to operate three hubs for the nation’s capital. His administration is still short on answers. Running three airports will be “very, very, very challenging” given Mexico City’s altitude, temperature and surrounding mountains, IATA head Alexandre de Juniac said at a conference in the Mexican capital. “Let me be perfectly clear, there will be no compromise on safety.” With other panelists and attendees echoing his concerns at the conference, Lopez Obrador’s top transportation official had few details to offer in response. “We need to look for a valid solution that is absolutely safe from an aeronautical standpoint,” said Transport Minister Javier Jimenez Espriu. The safety focus underscored the airline industry’s misgivings about Lopez Obrador’s intention to upgrade the existing hub and an airport in nearby Toluca, while tapping the Defense Ministry to transform a military base into a commercial airport. Aeronautical analysts at Mitre Corp. have argued that the Santa Lucia air base can’t safely operate in tandem with Mexico City’s main airport if capacity grows at both, which would be needed to ease saturation. Trekking out to Toluca from any of those two airports can take an hour and a half or more, depending on traffic, complicating passenger connections. Story has more detail and background.<br/>