Mexican President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador said his government will cancel Mexico City’s $13.3 billion airport that is under construction, and instead build a terminal and two runways at a military base north of the capital.
The decision followed a controversial four-day public consultation launched by López Obrador in which about 70% of the slightly more than one million people who voted opted for the alternative project.
López Obrador, who campaigned in favor of the alternative and is due to take office Dec. 1, said the proposal will solve the saturation of the existing airport in three years.
The nonbinding consultation, which ran from Thursday through Sunday, was controversial on a number of fronts, including giving voters the decision on a matter as technical as the airport infrastructure for one of the world’s largest cities.
Voters rejected continuing the construction of a new airport at Texcoco, a lake bed northeast of Mexico City, in favor of keeping the existing airport and adding the terminal and two runways to a military base at Santa Lucía.
A full version of this report can be found on WSJ.com
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