Mexico City Airport to Quadruple Passenger Capacity

banderasnews.com

MexicoStar.com
go to original
September 4, 2014

Last year, Mexico City's Benito Juarez International led all Latin American airports in takeoffs and landings and handled a record 31.5 million passengers in 2013.

Mexico City - Mexico plans a new $9.15 billion international airport which will eventually handle 120 million passengers a year, quadrupling the congested current hub's capacity, President Enrique Peña Nieto said on Tuesday.

In his annual state-of-the-nation address, Peña Nieto said the new Mexico City airport would have six runways, as Reuters reported in June, up from the two the current airport has. It could eventually surpass the world's busiest airport in Atlanta, Georgia, which handled over 94 million passengers last year.

Peña Nieto said he would present on Wednesday the airport plan, which aims to ease delays at the current hub, the Benito Juarez International Airport.

Mexico's President Enrique Peña Nieto addresses the audience during his second State of the Union address at the National Palace in Mexico City, September 2, 2014.

Peña Nieto did not say how quickly the airport would reach its targeted capacity, nor when construction would begin. The current hub handled 31.5 million passengers in 2013.

Without a new airport, the government is concerned Mexico may lose competitiveness.

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

"We cannot keep postponing a serious solution," he added.

Read more at MexicoStar.com.

Mexico City on the Mind

September 23, 2013 3:03pm

style.com

Mexico City is rapidly emerging as a—if not the—hotbed for emerging art, fashion, and design. It boasts one of the globe’s highest concentrations of museums, features cutting-edge architecture (check out Museo Soumaya, a hull-like structure plated in honeycomb blocks designed by the firm FR-EE), and just yesterday, received attention in a front-page New York Times article about its increasing attractiveness for expatriate artists and entrepreneurs. It seems the metropolis has appealed to designers, too, as traces of Mexico City popped up on a host of Spring ’14 runways.

While such labels as Rodebjer and Rebecca Minkoff pulled inspiration from Mexico, the biggest splash belonged to Prada (as big splashes often do). Signora Miuccia commissioned a panel of muralists to paint her set with giant faces, which were replicated on dresses, skirts, and coats. Prada reported that political art out of Mexico—particularly the work of Diego Rivera—served as a strong source of inspiration, and the collection’s first look featured a print by Mexican street artist Stinkfish.

At House of Holland, Henry Holland paid homage to Baz Luhrmann’s 1996 hit Romeo + Juliet, much of which was filmed in Mexico City. Splendid hues and religious motifs weren’t compromised, thanks to prints—which nodded to Mexico’s deep Catholic roots—by L.A.-based tattoo artist Alex Garcia.

Considering that Annette and Phoebe Stephens—the duo behind New York-based jewelry line Anndra Neen—were raised in Mexico City, it is perhaps not surprising that notes from their childhood emerged in their latest offering. Spring ’14′s sculptural shields, triangular necklaces, and woven metal wares were reportedly inspired by Ron Fricke’s 1992 globe-trotting documentary Baraka. The designers, who produce the line in Mexico City’s Zona Rosa neighborhood, embraced not just Mexican artisanship but Namibian and MENA crafts as well. To top it off, the Stephens sisters showed their new range alongside their personal collection of Rivera works—the exact artist that led Ms. Prada, thousands of miles away in Milan, to her own effort.

—Nick Remsen