Guadalajara Airport secures land for a third runway

GUADALAJARA - With the acquisition of 285 hectares of land, Guadalajara's international airport has guaranteed its future growth; it even has space to build a third runway, which currently no other airport in the country has, said the CEO of Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico (GAP), Raúl Revuelta.

“Having reached agreements with the land owners is something very relevant because it will allow us to have a third runway. There are no commercial airports in Mexico that have three operational runways. It does not mean that we are going to start building it today, it means that when the city requires it, we will have the space to build it,” said the CEO of the concessionaire group.

When detailing the destination of the US$1 billion investment recently announced by Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico for the Guadalajara airport in the five-year period 2025-2029, Revuelta Musalem highlighted the relevance of acquiring land to prevent the growth of the Guadalajara air terminal from stopping in the future.

“An airport stops growing the moment it runs out of land, it has nowhere to grow…. Usually, not only in Mexico but all over the world, cities are eating up airports, and when you want to buy land, it is impossible,” he mentioned.

Currently, only the airports of Mexico City, Cancun, Guadalajara and Felipe Angeles International Airport (AIFA) have two runways, and in the case of the airport in Guadalajara, the opening of its second runway in 2024 represented a growth of almost 70% of its airside.

According to the document submitted by GAP to the Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications and Transport (SICT), as part of the consultation forums on the National Development Plan, the number of passengers in Mexico, which currently reaches 120 million users per year, will double in less than 20 years, which requires the construction of new terminals and runways.

The document highlights the multiplier effect that airports represent for the country's economic development. In terms of employment alone, the air sector generates around one million direct jobs including work in airports, airlines and logistics services, and more than two million indirect jobs linked to tourism facilitated by air transport.

“More than 80% of international tourists arrive by air. In 2023, Mexico received around 40 million international visitors generating foreign exchange for more than US$28 billion,” he refers.