The Guadalajara International Airport is set for big changes in 2019, Aurora Adame, the corporate director of Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacific (GAP), announced this week.
The operators of the Guadalajara airport – and 12 others in western and northern Mexican – hope to finalize plans to construct a second runway and terminal this year, Adame said.
In addition, over the next 12 months Adame expects to make concrete deals for direct flights from Guadalajara to at least one European capital, either Paris or Madrid.
Adame also noted that the Guadalajara airport needs to be ready to take up any overflow in passenger traffic caused by the cancellation of the ambitious Tecoxco project in Mexico City. A second airport is planned in the capital, but is unlikely to be ready for another three years, at least.
A stumbling block to GAP’s ambitious expansion plans will – once again – be the ongoing legal dispute with a local farmers’ cooperative (ejido) over compensation for appropriated land paid decades ago when the facility was built. Continuing protests by the farmers have caused major disruption at the airport for a number of years. Although the new federal government has vowed to fix the issue once and for all, plans for a second runway will not go ahead until a solution is found.
Jalisco Tourism Secretary Germán Ralis Cumplido said opening up a direct route from Guadalajara to Europe would provide “a major competitive boost to Jalisco.”