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No Airport Expansion! is a campaign group that aims to provide a rallying point for the many local groups campaigning against airport expansion projects throughout the UK.
New airport planned at Chinchero close to Machu Picchu to bring in ever more tourists
Date added: 3 June, 2014
Machu Picchu is one of the world’s great spectacles, and the numbers of tourists visiting it has risen – 2.3 million in 2011. Now the existing airport of Cusco Velazco Astete is said to be filling up, so another larger airport is planned, at nearby Chinchero. The plan is for a 4,000 metre runway, able to cater for planes as large as the A380. Construction of a new airport is going ahead despite local concerns over corruption and the environmental impacts such a large project could have on the delicate mountaintop ecosystem of Peru’s Sacred Valley. The Peruvian president backs the project, with claims it will boost tourism, create jobs and permit modernization. The new airport’s detractors say that sort of tourist volume is more than the region can handle sustainably. At Machu Picchu, the Peruvian Ministry of Tourism. Officials already limit the number of visitors to 3,500 people daily in order to satisfy UNESCO, which has designated the ruins a World Heritage Site. They fear the new airport will destroy the things the tourists have come to see. Others wonder what the effect might be on Lima if it gets by-passed. The airport might be open by 2017.
and there is a short video ( 4 minutes) which starts with great images of the area – and then ends with huge airport infrastructure superimposed on it, by virtual images). Link
Construction of a new airport near the famed ruins of Machu Picchu is going ahead despite local concerns over corruption and the environmental impacts such a large project could have on the delicate mountaintop ecosystem of Peru’s Sacred Valley.
Planned for Chinchero, between Machu Picchu and Cusco, the new airport has the blessing of Peruvian President Ollanta Humala, who says the $460 million project will boost tourism, create jobs and “permit modernization,” The Telegraph reports.
The current Cusco airport, Alejandro Velasco Astete International Airport, “only operates with limited daytime flights,” The Telegraph reported in 2012, “and is limited by its location in a city, surrounded by hills. Large aircraft cannot fly into the facility.”
An atmospheric video introducing new airport, which would be named Chinchero-Cusco International Airport, suggest that it would be able to accommodate Airbus A380 and Boeing 757 aircraft, both of which can seat hundreds of passengers.
The new airport’s detractors say that sort of tourist volume is more than the region can handle sustainably, citing an already overwhelming number of arrivals to Cusco and other Sacred Valley towns.
At Machu Picchu, arrivals have surged from 1.7 million in 2010 to 2.3 million in 2011, according to the Peruvian Ministry of Tourism. Officials already limit the number of visitors allowed into the Machu Picchu site to 3,500 people daily in order to satisfy UNESCO, which has designated the ruins a World Heritage Site.
But the problems with the new Chinchero airport don’t end with the sheer number of arrivals, writes journalist Nicholas Asheshov. “The airport is not even needed, even if it were to be, in the words of Roger Valencia, Cusco’s top guide and thoughtful ecologist, ‘properly managed.'”
Asheshov wrote in an article in the Peruvian magazineCaretas. “But, again, as everyone here knows, it will be badly done. The quality of the regional and municipal administrations of Cusco and Urubamba, of which Chinchero is a district, is Third World incompetent with a well-entrenched tradition of corruption.”
Asheshov and other locals in the tourism industry worry that making it easier for tourists to get here will only destroy the things they’ve come to see. “The Sacred Valley has become a conurbation of million-dollar maize fields among the hotels,” Asheshov writes.
Others in the tourism industry wonder what the effect might be on Lima and its attractions, if passengers bypass the Peruvian capital in favor of a direct flight to Machu Picchu and its surrounding tourism bounty.
Three Consortia Submit Bids for Chinchero Airport Contract
23.4.2014 (Peruvian Times)
Three consortia submitted proposals on Tuesday to build and operate a new international airport in Peru’s southern Andean region of Cusco.
The 40-year contract to build and operate the airport in the sleepy town of Chinchero is to be awarded on Friday by private investment promotion agency ProInversion. The initial cost of the project is estimated to be around $539 million, but the investment could rise to $658, depending on expansions and other works, ProInversion said in a statement.
The consortia —Aeropuerto Chinchero, Kuntur Wasi and Aeroportuario Imperial— submitted their technical and economic proposals for the contract.
ProInversion reported that the Aeropuerto Chinchero consortium is made up of construction company Grana y Montero SA, and the French-based Vinci Airports SAS and Vinci Concessions SAS (Vinci Airports is also bidding for the Santiago de Chile airport). The consortium Kuntur Wasi includes the Argentine firm Corporacion America SA and Andino Investment Holding SA of Peru, which in 2011 won the bid to operate and maintain six airports in southern Peru. The third consoritum is Aeroportuario Imperial is made up of Grupo Odinsa SA of Colombia and Mota Engil Peru SA of Portugal.
The airport will be built in the district of Chinchero, which is home to a community of about 12,000 people, Quechua-speaking farmers with rich, world-recognized traditions in textile weaving. The airport is to replace Cusco’s current airport, which is located in the city of Cusco about 35 kms away. Chinchero likes at 3780 meters above sea level (12,400 ft) whereas the current airpot is several hundred feet lower, at 11,200 ft.
Plans to build an airport at Chinchero, to expand facilities for the now hundreds of thousands tourists that visit the nearby Machu Picchu ruins every year, has been on the drawing board since the early 1970s.
Critics of the Chinchero airport project say that it is a poorly devised plan that will destroy the historical town and the stunning landscapes of the surrounding valley, while also posing serious technical problems due to wind and fog factors as well as its higher altitude than the current Cusco airport.
Peru’s President Ollanta Humala has unveiled plans for a new airport near Cusco which he says will boost tourism to the Inca ruins of Machu Picchu and the surrounding region.
The current airport, which is only able to handle limited daytime flights, was not sufficient, Mr Humala said.
The government will invest $460m (£290m) in the project, he said.
Machu Picchu is Peru’s top tourist attraction but there are concerns over the impact of high visitor numbers.
“This new airport will not only mean more tourists will be able to come, but it will generate more jobs… and help surrounding communities,” President Humala said.
At a ceremony on Wednesday, he enacted a law that allows the expropriation of land in the town of Chinchero where the new international airport would be built.
The investment would help the government to tackle poverty, he said, “while always respecting ancient culture”.
Tourism is the main source of income in the region.
Machu Picchu is a world heritage site and the UN’s cultural agency, Unesco, has previously warned about uncontrolled access and urged the authorities to make conservation a priority.
Currently, entrance to Machu Picchu is limited to some 2,500 visitors a day, amid concerns about the impact on the environment and citadel.
Cusco is the main starting point for visitors wishing to visit the site, who can make the 112km (70 mile) journey either on foot or via bus and train.
The citadel of Machu Picchu, located 2,500m (8,200ft) above sea level, was built in the 15th Century by the Incas.
It was rediscovered in 1911 by US historian Hiram Bingham.
Chinchero Cusco International Airport is an airport project located near Cusco, Peru. The airport is being constructed as demand for nearby Velasco Astete Airport has steadily increased.
Peru’s Minister of Transport and Communications stated construction of Chinchero Cusco International Airport would commence in 2013. The estimated (initial) investment amount was USD420 million, later increased to USD500 million. The comprehensive project involves the design, construction, financing, administration, operation, maintenance and exploitation of the New Chinchero-Cusco International Airport. This concession, with a term of 30 or 40 years, will be self-sustaining. The estimated award date is 4Q2013. Recently, Macchu Picchu (Cusco) became one of the new seven wonders of the world, and is currently one of the most important cultural destination worldwide (1.5 million visitors per year). The government will close down the exisiting airport (Velasco Astete) once this project is completed in four to five years. Reports suggest interest from 16 interested groups containing 27 firms, who may invest up to USD2-3 billion in the project, more then four times the anticipated amount.
Sep-2013. The construction and operation concession award has been delayed to “1H2014”, according to Deputy Transport Minister Alejandro Chang.There are a number of studies, including feasibility, which must be approved.
Feb-2014. The construction and operation tender is reportedly attracting interest from seven unnamed parties, while the project is expected to require a USD539 million investment which could rise to USD658 million with future expansion. The concession is expected to be awarded in Feb-2014.
The construction and operation tender award will be postponed from 28-Feb-2014 to 25-Apr-2014, due to a delay in relocating power lines at the future airport’s site. Bidders which have pre-qualified for the project will be known before then, and the list of bidders and final concession contract is expected to be presented to Peru’s Comptroller General in early Mar-2014. Consortia may be modified until 08-Apr-2014.
Mar-2014. The airport stated its construction and concession timetable will not be changed and the dates for submission of technical and economic studies by bidders and the award of the concession remain 22-Apr-2014 and 25-Apr-2014, respectively, as confirmed by Peru’s investment promotion agency ProInversion. The project will required an initial USD538 million investment, increasing to USD658 million with the inclusion of further renovations once the airport begins operations.
The Transport Ministry confirmed the construction and operation concession will be awarded 25-Apr-2014 “without further delay”. The Ministry plans to ensure “all obstacles” to the construction of the facility on the proposed site are relocated before construction begins. As previously reported the project will require an initial USD538 million investment, which increases to USD658 million when including further renovations once operations begin, and is expected to be complete by 2018 or 2019.
Apr-2014. The airport will have capacity for up to five million passengers p/a once its construction is complete, and up to eight million passengers p/a in the “long term”, according to Peru’s Minister of Transport and Communications Carlos Paredes.
Chinchero Cusco International Airport (AICC) received technical proposals from three consortiums for its construction tender. Seven pre-qualified bidders submitted applications.
Construction works will include a 40,000sqm terminal building and 4000m runway, as well as general and commercial aviation aprons and taxiways, as confirmed by Peru’s Transport Ministry. The terminal will have capacity for 4.5 million passengers p/a with possible further expansion to 5.7 million passengers p/a. Construction is expected to commence in the coming months once wells and reservoirs are relocated and engineering studies are completed, though no exact date was specified. The airport’s 40-year construction and operation concession was awarded to the Kuntur Wasi consortium of Argentina‘s Corporacion America and Peru’s Andino Investment Holding, who will invest USD538 million to bring the project online, which could increase to a USD658 million investment once further expansion is included.
There are pressures for those wanting jobs and economic development to back the airport. Link claiming those against it want to keep the south of Peru poor.
From some dusty official shelf, the burghers of Cusco have created a billion-dollar nightmare, the Chinchero airport.
Thousands of tourists travel every day across this patchwork kaleidoscope of thousands of rolling acres of ancient potato and quinoa fields and grazing land, with oxen-drawn ploughs attended by Quechua family groups. The tourists are on their way to Machu Picchu and already they are absorbing the medieval mystery of a great, little-known civilization. They are in the cloud kingdom of the Incas.
It is a great sight. The Chinchero massif is dominated by a jewel of a colonial church atop an Inca palazzo and terraces, with an Indian town below that was the setting for Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper’s 1971 classic “The Last Great Picture Show”.
Indian weavers and their agriculturalist menfolk are today’s inheritors of a two thousand year tradition.
This will all be destroyed the day the bulldozers and dump trucks move in, watched by the sad, bleak snow peaks, a few miles away, of the cordilleras above Machu Picchu . The inhabitants of Chinchero know it. Everyone in Cusco knows it. Most of them know, too, that the airport is not even needed, even if it were to be, in the words of Roger Valencia, Cusco’s top guide and thoughtful ecologist, “properly managed.”
But, again, as everyone here knows, it will be badly done. The quality of the regional and municipal administrations of Cusco and Urubamba, of which Chinchero is a district, is Third World incompetent with a well-entrenched tradition of corruption. It is not for lack of cash, though. Cusco gets more than a billion dollars just from Camisea gas royalties, and much more these days from tourism, which is booming.
But the crowded roads are thin and poorly designed. All three of the heavy-duty bridges into the Valle Sagrado have collapsed. The Vilcanota River leaves an embarrassing flotsam of plastic, raw sewage and chemicals as it surges through deep canyons past silent stone terraces on its way to Machu Picchu. The previous President of the Cusco Region is in jail for theft and today’s Mayor of Urubamba was thrown out by the authorities for corruption, and then promptly re-elected.
Forget the Ministry of Culture, the former Instituto Nacional de Cultura, whose Cusco office is a 3,000-strong gorilla. The Environment Ministry is just a butterfly flapping its wings, here as elsewhere in the country. These are the people who have encouraged the runaway growth of the illegal slum of Machu Picchu pueblo, Aguas Calientes, home to carpet-baggers and scalpers.
The INC has, even worse, overseen the virtual destruction of Ollantaytambo. This once noble stone-built Inca town has been a screaming traffic jam of tourist buses and heavy trucks since Perurail was allowed to turn the tiny country station into its terminus for the million tourists it takes to Machu Picchu, 25 miles down valley.
The Sacred Valley has become a conurbation of million-dollar maize fields among the hotels and weekend dachas.
The World Bank and the Finnish government have washed their hands of their Save the Vilcanota and Save Machu Picchu projects.
As if it mattered, the airport is a sleazy financial disaster for nearly all the 12,000 inhabitants of Chinchero, most of whom are Quechua-speaking comuneros. In a deal that was quietly railroaded through at the turn of the year, S/.138mn ($56mn) was handed to a group of under three percent of Chinchero’s inhabitants.
That’s it. That is what Chinchero will receive for being destroyed. The scheme is so badly designed that this cash S/.138mn has gone to just 426 people, the ones who happen to own the 350 hectares, out of the district’s 70,000, where the airstrip is to be laid.
This is the comunidad of Yanacona which, a couple of days after the money from the Regional Government was received, was taken over by Humberto Huaman, who won by 326 against 325 votes. Humberto had just been sentenced to four years’ jail, suspended, for problems when he was alcalde of Chinchero three years ago. Huaman is a member of Tierra y Libertad, a son of Shining Path. He will be helping the Yanacona folks to share out S/11mn in communal cash.
Half of the Yanacona owners, despite the S/.138mn windfall, voted against. “The old men, none of them wanted to sell,” says the alcalde of Chinchero, Juan Carlos Gomez. A bright, engaging 32-year-old, Gomez lives in Chinchero with his mum, and is trying to save what he can of Chinchero.
A further S/.48mn has gone to another district, Raachi, for the purchase of their land for the northern end of the runway. This means that the Cusco government has already put down $74mn in buying ancient potato fields and rough grazing land. They have achieved the impressive feat of grossly overpaying for a patch of some of the world’s highest agricultural land and cheating, at the same time, most of the people involved.
The present Cusco airport, at 3,300 m.a.s.l., lies on 240 valuable hectares. It will last for another dozen, maybe 20, years with modest extensions of the runway and handling facilities, Corpac officials here tell me. They have already bought the lights for night flying.
Chinchero is 400m higher, a lot at these altitudes This means that Chinchero will not be able to handle direct flights from the United States, much less Europe.
During the December-to-April rains, Chinchero is usually in the clouds. I have to drive through with my lights on high beam on the way to Cusco. Most nights the temperature is below freezing. Hailstorms hit Chinchero on 150 days of the year.
In contrast, the Pampa de Anta, several hundred meters lower, the same height as Cusco itself and 20 minutes nearer to Cuzsco, is a much less damaging choice and used to be a lake. You could land a plane on it tomorrow, not the case with the rolling potato fields of Chinchero.
Before they rush into a non-urgent Chinchero disaster, someone should solve the overcrowding at Machu Picchu, which is even worse than the official computers suggest, as INC people often run rackets selling the same tickets twice.
In Chinchero, Alcalde Juan Carlos Gomez is from another deck of cards to today’s Cusco and Urubamba authorities. He is a lively, studious and seasoned politician and administrator who talks readily about a reasonable solution to an impossible problem.
He says, “I have asked the Prime Minister and other members of the cabinet to form a top-level commission to try to ensure that the ecological resources and cultural traditions of Chinchero are protected.”
He adds: “In Cusco, no one wants to talk to me.”
Nicholas Asheshov lives in Urubamba. A veteran journalist, noted explorer and entrepreneur, he was editor of the Peruvian Times from 1969 to 1990.
This article was first published in Spanish in Caretas magazine this week.
By Paul Brady
20.2.2013
Map showing location of Chinchero and Cuzco
and there is a short video ( 4 minutes) which starts with great images of the area – and then ends with huge airport infrastructure superimposed on it, by virtual images). Link