Cancelling new Mexico airport would cost $6.6bn: CEO

MEXICO CITY: Cancelling the new Mexico City airport would cost about half its $13 billion budget, the head of the company in charge of the project said on Monday following threats by the presidential election front-runner to scrap it.

Federico Patino, the chief executive officer of Grupo Aeroportuario de la Ciudad de México (GACM), the firm overseeing the project, said with the project coming close to its halfway point by year’s end, the cancellation cost would be about 120 billion pesos ($6.6 billion).

“There will surely be lawsuits and damages with penalty clauses ... and if we add this to the unfortunate cancellation of the labour on top of severance costs ... the figure that we have is around 120 billion pesos,” he told a news conference.

The leftist who is leading opinion polls for the July election, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, has threatened to abandon the airport. Last week he said he would file legal challenges to block future work, lashing out at the project as “corrupt.”

However, he since softened his stance, calling for a thorough review of the project and offering to send members of his National Regeneration Movement (MORENA) party to meet with private sector and government experts.

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto would consider an invitation if offered, his spokesman Eduardo Sanchez told reporters in a press conference, but will not halt construction while his administration sees out its term through November.