ASUR Sees No Risk From the New Tulum Airport

While this would represent direct competition for the Cancun International Airport, a part of Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste, analysts predict the financial repercussions for it will be minimal.

CANCUN – Mexico’s President, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, announced this Monday that the construction of the new airport in Tulum will move ahead as planned. This would represent direct competition for the Cancun International Airport, which is part of Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste (ASUR). Analysts predict the financial repercussions for it will be minimal.

“Although initially the impression that we might have is of additional competition for the market, in reality I believe that an important collateral effect in the medium and long term would be the expansion of the market,” explained Carlos Hermosillo, an independent stock market specialist. “In fact, it further enhances the region, possibly resulting in additional growth in passengers to the area, at both airports.”

In his morning conference on Monday, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced that an agreement was reached for the construction of a new airport in Tulum with the ejidatarios of Felipe Carrillo Puerto.

“In addition, it is important to consider that the vocation of the Tulum airport, as far as I know, would be partially oriented to cargo and military service, which is why it would not have a capacity similar to the Cancun airport, in terms of commercial passengers,” he added.

Federal resources have already been released so that the preliminary studies of the airport in this southern part of the country can begin. Similarly, since the end of last year, a controlling company was created, administered by the Army, that will manage the operations of this terminal, that of Santa Lucía and the Mayan Train.

“I would expect that being managed by the military will have little interference in the quality of the commercial service or in the preference of the airlines to use it. While the focus would be to provide service to Army operations, commercial operations will take place as long as they are viable in terms of demand and costs for the airlines, ” commented Carlos Hermosillo.

Likewise, President López Obrador mentioned that he will ensure that good administration of both the train and the airports, since the profits of this company will be destined to strengthen the finances for pensioners and retirees of the armed forces.

As long as the operation is not sacrificed to obtain cash flow for other purposes unrelated to the nature of the business, such as pensions, there should be no problem. The profits as such are a right of the concessionaire, which in this case is the Army.

Even with this news from López Obrador, the shares of Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste, ASUR, rose 2.75% this Monday at the close of the stock market in the Mexican Stock Exchange (BMV), to settle at 358.95 pesos per unit. This represents a gain in its market value of 3,069 million pesos.

Source: El Economista