Mexico to build new int'l airport

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto Tuesday announced the construction of a new international airport in the capital of Mexico City in his second state-of-the-nation address.

With a budget of 9.23 billion U.S. dollars, the new airport will have six landing strips and serve 126 million passengers a year, which will quadruple the capacity of the current two-terminal international airport.

"The new airport will be Mexico's largest infrastructure project in recent years, and one of the largest in the world," Pena Nieto said.

In 2002, protests led authorities to scrap a planned new airport on the outskirts of Mexico City. According to the latest proposal, the new airport will be built on federally owned land next to the existing facility.

"The current saturation restricts communication within the country, limits Mexico's connectivity to the world, restrains trade and investment, and creates delays for users," Pena Nieto said.

The new airport is not only needed to handle Mexico's growing air traffic, but also "an opportunity to drive development," said Pena Nieto, calling it "Mexico's gateway to the world."

The project will be officially presented to the public on Wednesday.