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Think Tank Calls For Completion Of Mexico City Airport

Mexican President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador will receive public comment on the construction of Mexico City’s new airport until Wednesday as part of his incoming administration’s review of the 4-year-old project.

Lopez Obrador, who takes office Dec. 1, has questioned whether the project is necessary and has called on a referendum on whether it should be built. About $5.2 billion has been spent on the project, and about one third of it has been completed.

The Mexican Institute for Competitiveness, an independent think tank, will submit to Lopez Obrador’s team a study in which it outlines a need for the airport and the potential risks of graft through the process. The airport will be a boost for the country, and cancelling it would hurt its rating with credit agencies, said Ana Thaís Martinez, a co-author of the report.

“It could eventually affect our society in terms of how much credit can we get,” she said.

Private investors — including from the U.S. — have already bought $6 billion in bonds. Phoenix Sky Harbor has one daily direct flight to Mexico City.

Jorge Valencia was a senior field correspondent at KJZZ from 2016 to 2019.