Riviera Maya Airport (Tulum Airport) auction cancellation challenged by Grupo Mexico

Grupo Mexico (a large Mexican mining conglomerate) and its airport operation partners of Grupo Aeroportuario Pacifico (GAP) have just (June 1st 2011) challenged the Mexican Transport regulatory body’s (SCT) decision to cancel the auction of the Riviera Maya Airport (Tulum Airport).

On May 20th 2011, the SCT had found none of the technical offers had complied the Government requisites to build and operate the Tulum airport, expected to handle over 700.000 passengers a year.

The Grupo Mexico/GAP consortia and the Cancun Airport operator (ASUR-Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste) are having a strong lobby battle to determine if the latter can keep the monopoly on the Yucatan Peninsula best known beach resorts.

All these battles will have an important effect on Tulum real estate and developments.  There are a lot of speculative land developments on the area near the airport project.  Gossip goes around that top local politicians have heavily invested in land around the airfield.

 

Riviera Maya Airport postponed

On May 20th, the Mexican Communications and Transport Secretariat declined all the technical offers for the construction of the Riviera Maya Airport (Tulum Airport).  At least 5 consortia of Mexican and multinational groups where bidding to build and operate the Mayan Riviera Airport.  The airport was expected to start operating in 2014.

The Mexican Government has not yet commented on the results, however lobby from ASUR – the Cancun airport operators (a neighbor airport enjoying the monopoly on the Yucatan Peninsula best resorts) is assumed to have used a substantial lobby against the project.