Plans are being drawn up for a third passenger terminal at Mexico City International Airport (AICM) and the possibility of a fourth one is being analyzed, according to the capital’s airport chief.

Gerardo Ferrando, CEO of the Mexico City Airport Group (GACM), said in an interview that the master plan for the third terminal is being drawn up and predicted that it will open next year.

The terminal will be built near the maintenance base of the company Mexicana MRO Services and will be used solely for arriving passengers. The project will ease crowding at the existing terminals but it will not increase the airport’s operational capacity.

Ferrando said that a fourth terminal that will allow Mexico’s busiest airport to better cope with increasing passenger numbers could be built at a later date.

“There are certain discomforts at T1 and T2, that’s why T3 is coming and eventually T4. Everything that will be done is for greater comfort,” he said.

The GACM has a 3-billion-peso (US $157.7-million) budget this year to fund the projects and to carry out other improvements.

Ferrando also said that infrastructure operator Aleática is prepared to sell its 49% share in the Toluca International Airport to the GACM, which already owns 25% of the facility. The México state government holds the remaining 26%.

The Toluca airport is part of the federal government’s three-pronged plan to meet rising demand for airline services in the Valley of Mexico.

It will be upgraded to a meet the demands of eight million passengers annually, while it is expected that around 18 million passengers will use the new Santa Lucía airport during its first year of operations.

President López Obrador announced yesterday that construction of the 78-billion-peso (US $4.1-billion) airport will begin Monday and it is expected to open in 2021.

The government intends to increase the combined capacity of the AICM, the Toluca airport and the Santa Lucía facility to 120 million passengers annually.

López Obrador announced that he was canceling the previous government’s US $13-billion airport project at Texcoco, México state, a month before he took office last year.

The decision followed a public consultation that found just under 70% support to cancel the partially-built project.

Source: El Financiero (sp), El Universal (sp)