LONDON – Peru’s main gateway airport, Jorge Chávez Worldwide Airport (LIM), will get a $1.6 billion facelift.
Lima International Airport or Jorge Chávez Worldwide Airport (LIM) will receive a new terminal costing $1.6 billion according to the airport owner Lima Airport Partners (LAP).
LAP has big plans for the airport after passenger traffic is gradually recovering from the pandemic.
Within the $1.6 billion package, it comes with a new Terminal 2 and a new control tower.
A new runway is expected to finish by January of 2023.
Also, the package will also refurbish the old terminal 1. Refurbishing Terminal 1 will cost $160 million with the aim of maintaining and improving the passenger experience.
On top of this, LAP will also further invest in enhancing customer service, with the aim of pushing Lima to be a preferred airport in Latin America according to CEO Juan José Salmón told a press conference.
Despite the optimism surrounding the increase in capacity, Lima Airport is still healing from the pandemic.
The Airport’s passenger numbers remained 45.8% below 2019. Though, cargo traffic has been important for the hub, increasing its number of flights by 75.2% compared to pre-pandemic levels.
By 2025, the airport is expected to welcome the new second terminal and a new air traffic control tower. The new Terminal 2 will see the airport adding an extra 180,000m2 of capacity to handle 37 million passengers by 2025.
Furthermore, LAP ambitiously is also pushing for the funding of the expansion of the 2nd Terminal by the year 2028 should passenger levels continue to grow and is likely to set aside US$400 million worth of investment to increase the capacity of the 2nd terminal by 300,000m2 in order to meet the growing demand, according to Salmón.
He later added that the airport could witness passenger traffic reaching 40 million that year.
In addition to these projects, LAP is also considering expanding into investing in the wider airport ecosystem, where areas surrounding the airport are also involved in the upgrading process.
The airport’s group wants to make sure those who are living around the airport are also economically benefiting from the growth.
It looks like LAP and the Peruvian Government is playing the catch-up game with other Latin American counterparts. Countries like Mexico and Chile have undergone a major overhauling of the air infrastructure.
Mexico built its new Felipe Ángeles International Airport; Chile recently opened a new Terminal 2 at Santiago Airport. Whilst Colombia and Panama are upgrading the existing infrastructure of their main airports in Bogotá and Panama City.
LAP expects that the $1.6 billion projects will compete with the likes of these airports in the region.
The airport upgrade is being welcomed by many airlines, including LATAM which has the largest market share and Lima’s weekly departure of 58%, followed by Peru’s low-cost airlines of Sky Airline (13.5%) and Star Peru (6.3%), Copa Airways ( 3.8%), and Viva Peru (2.9%).
