Alejandro Giammattei, president-elect of Guatemala, announced that during his mandate the administration of the country's airports will be handed over to the municipalities.
The plans of the president-elect, who is due to take office on Jan. 14, 2020, are to hand over the administration of several airports to mayors who have commercial airstrips within their municipalities.
According to the Guatemalan airline guild, it is necessary to modernize the infrastructure of La Aurora International Airport by expanding the southern taxiway, but in the study of the project it is proposed to begin with work on the northern runway.
The consulting firm Deloitte Tetra Tech was hired to prepare feasibility studies, with the aim of establishing the plan to modernize the Guatemalan air terminal.
The four consortiums made up of companies from Spain, Mexico and Colombia presented their proposals in the tender to prepare a feasibility study to modernize the airport in Guatemala City.
From a statement by ANADIE:
Guatemala May 16, 2016.This morning teams from the National Agency of Partnerships for the Development of Economic Infrastructure (ANADIE), the National Competitiveness Program (PRONACOM) and the General Directorate of Civil Aeronautics (DGAC) took part in the reception and opening of technical and financial proposals submitted by four consulting firms interested in preparing a feasibility study for the evaluation and structuring of an initiative by the Partnerships for the Development of Economic Infrastructure: "Modernization, Efficiency and Security of La Aurora International Airport in Guatemala City".The consulting firms that submitted the offers were:
The opening of bids for analyzing the feasibility of modernizing the Guatemala City airport has been suspended until doubts held by participating companies have been clarified.
Thetendercalled by the National Agency Partnership has been suspended until the disagreements raised by some of the companies involved in the process are addressed.
Current works at the Guatemalan International Airport include the construction of commercial space for 30 shops.
The information available on the subject does not make clear whether the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) will be the entity responsible for renting commercial spaces to interested companies, receiving the corresponding revenue, or if the other version is correct which indicates that the entire space known as 13 Baktun has already been rented for 15 years without a tender.
The start of operations of the international airport in the southeastern part of Guatemala is scheduled for March this year.
The Southern Air Base of Retalhuleu, could be starting operations in March. The airport has the capacity to receive international flights. "Funds for the work were provided by the private sector and the work took about a year."
In terms of how modern the infrastructure for air transport is, Panama leads the field, followed distantly by Costa Rica.
"None of the airports in Central America comes close to knocking Tocumen off its number one position in the ranking by Skytrax, nor the ranking by the World Economic Forum. The latter measures the quality of infrastructure for air travel in the country , where Panama climbed from 38th place in 2007 to last year reach the prestigious position of sixth place," reported Elsalvador.com.
The infrastructure in most airports in Central America can not cover the increase in the number of air passengers transiting in the region.
In the region, traffic has increased by almost 80% over the last ten years going from 95 million to 170 million passengers. "Today, 30% of Latin American flights take off or land at congested airports, which constitutes one of the main difficulties in the development of the airline industry," noted an article in Eleconomista.net.
One of the projects which aroused the most interest from foreign investors in the recent Investment Summit has drawn criticism over its design and planning.
The small amount of urban development and the broken terrain in the area of Zone 25 where the Municipality of Guatemala plans to build an international airport have raised questions in the real estate sector.
The Autonomous Executive Port Commission will update the project from its conceptual phase, estimating that it will become concrete under the next government.
The expansion of the El Salvador International Airport in Comalapa will not take place during the period of this government, which has two years left in office, admitted the President of the Autonomous Executive Port Commission (CEPA), Alberto Arene.