The head of the National Fund for the Promotion of Tourism (Fonatur), Rogelio Jiménez Pons, said that they are working on a project that involves moving the Merida International Airport to the south of the city, which would allow the station of the Mayan Train to remain linked to the new air terminal as it will happen in Cancun.
It is a real estate project of 2,000 hectares that will not add cost to the budget of the Mayan Train, as it will be entirely financed by real estate companies, that is, Fonatur would only act as the promoter. The general design of the same is running by the architect Enrique Norten.
Jiménez Pons revealed this project during his participation in the third edition of Sustainable and Social Tourism Summit, which takes place in Cancun from June 23 to 26, where he said that they are still in the conceptual phase, so it is not yet a decision taken, it will also be the responsibility of the governor of Yucatan, Mauricio Vila Dosal, to make the announcement in case the work is given a green light.
He added that the current Mérida airport, “although very successful, is already very difficult”, having been absorbed by the urban sprawl of the city, which justifies its transfer to the south, since Mérida is currently growing in a way ” disproportionate “to the north.
The change supposes that the Mayan Train would have two stations in the Yucatecan capital, since the old station would be maintained, which would be the urban stop of the route, near the Paseo Montejo, from where the road would be derived to the south zone of the city where both the railway station with greater capacity would be built, as well as the air terminal, which, as in Cancún, would be operated by Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste, confirmed the owner of Fonatur.
He explained that they have two land options of more than 2,000 hectares each in which the new terminal could be built, which implies not only the airport work itself, but a whole reorientation of the growth of the urban sprawl of the Yucatan capital.
Private bet
Jiménez Pons insisted that this project will not suppose that it increases the cost of the Mayan Train, “we are not going to put a fifth to that; it is a 100% real estate project, a private bet “.
He said that the representative Vila Dosal is seeing this approach with sympathy and although it is still in conceptual phase, “we are already going in that direction, we can not hide that we are working on that,” he said in a post-speech interview at the sustainability forum .
“Our commitment in this project is to excite people, investors, because, I insist, we are talking about an eminently private issue,” he stressed; the federal participation would be in granting the concession to the group that would operate the new terminal.
Rogelio Jiménez emphasized that the creation of a large green area, Central Park style, is anticipated in the area of the new air and rail terminals.
Fifth place
According to data from the Ministry of Communications and Transportation, the Merida airport was ranked fifth in the national growth in passenger volume, with an annual rate of 11.9% in the first four months of 2019, considering only 20 terminals with greater transportation.
This terminal was placed below Bajío (20.6%), Querétaro (17.4%), Ciudad Juárez (16.2%) and Oaxaca (13.1%). (The Economist).
Source: nitu
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