An International Airport for Tulum, Mexico

As part of its plans to respond to the growing tourism market in the Riviera Maya, the Mexican Federal government has been backing plans to construct and operate a new international airport in the Tulum area. Oscar de Buen, Undersecretary for Infrastructure for the Communications and Transportation Ministry, explained recently that the new airport will be built to handle the passengers staying all along the Riviera, and that there are also concrete plans to modernize the highway system in that corridor.

The location of the airport project, whose existence has been denied on repeated occasions by state and federal authorities, was disclosed by ASA (Airports and Auxiliary Services) will be 65 kilometers (35 miles) from Cozumel Airport and 102 kilometers (55 miles) from the Cancun International Airport. It is to lie just South of the town of Tankah, according to information provided by ASA. Its runway is slated to be 3500 meters (11482 ft) long, and sits on a plot of land area of 1500 hectares (172 acres) purchased by ASA for a reported 18 million dollars. An adjacent buffer area was purchased from ejido lands (properties owned by a collective group of people living on a determined piece of property as a community) just last May to comply with federal aviation guidelines.

Tulum made headlines last year when the federal government sent armed military personnel to Tulum to shut down five resort properties. The government alleges that the hotels were built on federally protected lands, while affected parties claim the government is bullying its way into the Tulum real estate market by tearing down hotels on desirable properties, possibly looking to sell the plots later when prices skyrocket.

The reality of an impending airport for the area has already fueled real estate speculation, and the FOR SALE signs have gone up all over the area. An expected exponential rise in the tourism industry, akin to Cancun and Playa del Carmen, is behind the speculation. Real estate firms from Cancun, Playa del Carmen, and the rest of Mexico are beefing up their presence in the area and selling properties for development in anticipation of the boom.

The idea of building and operating an international airport in Tulum has been circulating for years now, but has met with opposition from both environmental groups concerned with the impact on the ecosystem as well as opponents who fear the competition to Cancun’s airport. According to Buen, the airport project for the Riviera Maya is part of an integral national plan to include new airports for the resort area of Puerto Peñasco, Sonora and San Blas, Nayarit hoping to increase national air transport capacity by 50% in the next ten years. A second runway is also being added to the Cancun airport, which should be finished by the third quarter of 2009, requiring over $70 million in new investment, hoping to increase its passenger totals to 25 million yearly.

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