After Lima Airport Partners (LAP) intends to postpone the modernization and expansion of the Jorge Chavez International Airport until 2035, the executive president of Indecopi, Julián Palacín Gutiérrez, asked the Supervisory Body for Investment in Transportation Infrastructure for Public Use (Ositrán) not to accept this request in defense of Peru’s air sovereignty, compliance with the obligations contractual and the rights of consumers and users, among other reasons.
According to what was agreed in the concession, the construction of the new air terminal for 35 million passengers should be ready in 2025. However, LAP seeks to expand it “despite the fact that it has obtained profits for 20 years; that is, it has the liquidity to comply with the agreed works”, indicated Indecopi.
The General Directorate of Civil Aeronautics (DGAC) has already declared the postponement of the works inadmissible in the appeal for reconsideration filed by Lima Airport Partners. This is based on the international aviation instruments signed, and ratified by Peru, of the Civil Aviation Law of Peru.
“We are concerned that various media outlets report that LAP I would be asking for a postponement until 2035, which would make us lose our strategic position as a hub in the region in relation to Chile, whose private concessionaire of its first air terminal has already completed the works,” said Palacín.
Thus, urged Ositrán to, in defense of consumers and users, respect the Directorial Resolution of the DGAC that several months ago said no to this breach.
“The new geopolitics of airports that Peru needs to project itself into the future in the international context requires the expansion of its main air terminal due to the competitiveness of our exports and our receptive and internal tourism, which are not negotiable,” he stressed.
He added that, as president of Indecopi, the governing body of the National Integrated Consumer Protection System, he insists on this request in defense of consumers and users, since LAP must comply with and deliver the air terminal of 35 million passengers per year before 2025, which, added to the old terminal of 18 million users, would mean an international airport of 53 million and thus surpass Chile and Colombia.
In addition, the current capacity prevents people from benefiting from substitute or protection flights in the shortest possible time in the event of non-compliance with airline itineraries because, for these to be activated, additional runways and boarding areas are needed.
“If the expansion is postponed, we would have to wait 13 more years and we would suffer severe airport congestion, as happened in 2019, to the detriment not only of the national and international airline industry, but above all of passengers, tourists, consumers and users. “, he claimed.
Source: Larepublica
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