Mexican president opens new airport three years after ditching alternative

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Monday opened a new Mexico City airport, over three years after he rattled investors by scrapping a $13b hub partly built by the previous government that he cast as corrupt. The military air base north of the capital, which Lopez Obrador has turned into Felipe Angeles International Airport, started with just a handful of flights. It begins operations without a train connection, which is due to be ready next year. Hundreds of soldiers milled around the airport, whose new buildings gleamed in bright sunshine, even as workers in orange and yellow vests continued work on parts of the site. The airport is the first of the major infrastructure projects planned by Lopez Obrador to be launched, and is aimed at easing congestion at the current Mexico City hub that lies approximately 45 km to the south. The president held his regular morning news conference at the airport ahead of the opening ceremony, and quickly rounded on critics who had questioned whether it would be completed. "This work was done in spite resistance from vested interests and people who wished us ill," said Lopez Obrador, who is holding a recall referendum next month on his presidency in a bid to strengthen his democratic mandate. The airport was built despite criticism from business groups that had backed the partly-built hub canceled by Lopez Obrador just a few weeks before he took office.<br/>