Led by Slim’s company Cicsa, the consortium also includes Spanish companies Acciona and FCC, local Mexican companies ICA, GIA, Prodemex, Grupo Hermes and La Peninsular.
Two other groups bid for the contract, the biggest contract in the airport construction project, which totals some US$13bn. General Manager of Grupo Aeropuerto de la Ciudad de México, Federico Patiño, indicated that one of the reasons Cicsa won was their promise to complete the project 20 days ahead of schedule, as per the bidding documents.
Work on the 743,000 square metre terminal building will begin this year, with completion anticipated for 2018 and operations due to commence in 2020. Set to become the world’s third-largest airport terminal after Dubai and Beijing, the building will initially serve up to 68m passengers a year after the first phase of construction. Upon completion, the airport will ultimately cater for 125m passengers a year; by way of comparison, the current airport handled approximately 40m passengers in the year ending May 31 last year.
The building will take the shape of an X, alluding to Mexico, and be spread over four floors. Arrivals, baggage reclaim and all services relating to ground handling and the baggage handling system will be located on the first floor, while the second floor will be home to international arrivals, immigration and the flight transfer area. Departures will be located on the third floor and the fourth floor will feature the check-in area and security control, as well as a carp park. Six runways with "triple simultaneous" operation will feature, making the airport one of the first to use this system outside of the European Union.
The construction alone of Mexico City airport will create approximately 160,000 jobs and, once operational, a higher total of 450,000 jobs will be created.
