The White Elephant Has Appeared

living.boondockingmexico@yahoo.com

Please read the following.  

If you’ve ever flown in or out of the Mexico City airport, you are familiar with the cramped, overcrowded terminals, the lack of runways, hangars, and space in general.  The airport sits in the middle of the city and you fly directly over skyscrapers.   Fortunately, there has only been one accident in the last 50 years, a Western Airlines flight from Dallas aircraft plowed into several buildings after taking the wrong runway which was under repairs.

Aeromexico has its own terminal that is less than 10 years old and the original terminal, which includes international flights was first establish in 1911 and has continued to expand on the same site to a size which now includes 26 national and international airlines as well as 15 cargo carriers.  Last year alone, 47,000,000 passengers passed through the 74 gates and over 500,000 tons of cargo.

A new plan was developed to build a new airport outside of the city in Texcoco relieving traffic conditions on both city streets and airport runways Nuevo Aeropuerto Internacional de Mexico (NAIM).  There are only two air strips in the current airport and at peak hours it is said there are a takeoff and landing every 30 seconds.

The new plan included room for expansion, reduced noise and air pollution with a train service that would take passengers into the city at low cost or no cost.  The actual construction was started three years ago and 78% of the foundations have been laid. 

Now the trouble begins.  Our new illustrious president and his 4^th Transformation (the Mexican Revolution was the 3^rd) decided the airport would cost too much and he now wants to turn a nearby Air Force base into the new airport in conjunction with airports in Toluca, Puebla, and Queretaro.   Sounds like an interesting plan but one that was developed in only a few months and will be built by the military (Yikes).  Three private construction firms that met the president’s guidelines all refused to take on the project for obvious reasons.

First and foremost is the cost of the current construction.  5 billion dollars (U.S.) has already been spent on the construction of NAIM plus another 4 billion dollars (U.S.) to demolish the foundations and pay out the contracts that were signed and promised by the government.  The new addition to the Air Force base will cost upwards of 4 billion dollars (U.S.) bringing the total to almost 14 billion dollars (U.S.).  

The president says that the new plan will eliminate corruption and bring things under the control of the government and help the poor.   The reason the new airport was under construction was to allow for increased investment in Mexico, create a true working airline hub that would last into 2050 with plans for expansion beyond that date.  In reality, it is retribution for all the years that the president ran for office and was held down and out of the process by major political parties.   There are now 147 lawsuits from construction firms, the 42,000 workers involved in the project, suppliers of materials, food trucks, the landowners who lost their homes (although paid at fair market value) under eminent domain pending in the tribunal courts of Mexico.

As of last, there has been a change of plan. The airport (NAIM) under construction at Texcoco will now be flooded and made into a lake instead of spending the money for demolition.   Imagine, now there will the cost of creating a lake added to all of the above.  

Also, the new plan at the Air Force base has run into legal issues as the Mexican supreme court issued a stay claiming that the environmental impact studies have yet to be done, and that there is a mountain at the end of the runway which obviously will present problems. 

Socialism at its best, as Aunt Bee once said as she ran for council ship, “if it is the will of the people, it shall be done”.  Unfortunately,  people never had a say in this one.

As of this writing, Mexico has lost over 200,000 jobs in the first six months of this year.  The airport construction made up almost 25% of those jobs lost.

Here is a link (Click Here) to a very objective editorial piece from Asia News