The White Elephant Airport

I wrote in the last post that we took the new train to the Felipe Angeles International Airport (known as AIFA) last weekend.

It was a short walk from the train station to the airport terminal.

 The terminal is attractive, bright, shiny and clean.  But there is none of the hustle and bustle you associate with airports.  Heck, it makes the airport at Cleveland, Ohio, look hectic.  Some areas are eerily empty.

Why are there so few people?  There are not that many flights, and most people simply do not want to put up with the inconvenience of traveling so far to get to the airport.

Here is the departures board.  Most of the flights are operated by Viva, a Mexican budget airline.  It's called an "international airport", but there were only two flights to Bogotá, Colombia listed.  None of the airlines from the United States, Canada, Europe or Asia wish to move their operations to this remote airport.

And here is the arrivals board...

Even though Viva is the main airline here, there was no one lined up at the counter, and no employees present.

There are supposedly flights to Caracas on a Venezuelan carrier called Conviasa (not surprising since the government was buddy-buddy with the Maduro regime).  Maybe the flight to Caracas had left earlier that day, but that counter was also devoid of life.

From the upper floor there is a walkway leading to the roof terrace of the building which houses the ground transportation terminal and parking garage.

The terrace is decorated with fiberglass figures of cactuses, each one painted by a different artist.  These have appeared along Paseo de la Reforma and on the Zócalo.  Perhaps this will be their permanent home.

 

In my opinion the airport is a white elephant, a vanity project of former President López Obrador.  He supposedly terminated construction of the planned Texcoco airport (which would have been much closer to the city) due to environmental concerns and corruption.  I suspect that López Obrador also wanted to deny his predecessor, Peña Nieto, the glory of having initiated what would have been the world's largest airport.  AIFA was extremely costly when you factor in the money that had already been spent on the Texcoco airport and the billions paid out for suspended contracts.