Beijing firm helps build airport for Peru landmark

The Peruvian city of Cusco will have a much-needed new airport to serve as a gateway to the Incan citadel of Machu Picchu, with a Chinese company playing a key role in the construction project.

Sinohydro Corp, a Beijing-based company that has been operating in Peru for more than six years, is part of a consortium established to build a terminal on a greenfield site in Cusco. The other partners in the venture are South Korea's Hyundai Engineering & Construction, Mexico's ICA Constructora and Peru's HV Contratistas.

Among the projects that Sinohydro has undertaken in Peru is the San Gaban III hydroelectric plant in Puno. Peru is investing around $500 million in the project to enhance the nation's energy security.

The Chinese company is also participating, directly or via consortiums, in projects to boost Peru's health, education and transportation facilities.

The $428 million terminal to be built for the Chinchero International Airport is designed to cater to up to 60 million passengers a year, expanding capacity in the region by 60 percent.

The Chinchero airport, estimated to cost $624 million, will be much closer to Machu Picchu compared with Cusco's Alejandro Velasco Astete International Airport.

The terminal is expected to be completed by 2025. Located in a valley, it will have a 4-kilometer-long runway－over 600 meters longer than that of the current airport in Cusco. The city is 30 km away from the town of Chinchero.

Cusco's current airport is not only farther from Machu Picchu, one of the world's top tourist attractions, it is also at maximum passenger capacity and can only serve narrow-body aircraft.

The Chinchero airport is expected to play a key role in the economic reactivation of the region. It could triple tourism revenue, said Jean Paul Benavente, governor of the Cusco region in Peru's southeast.

Tour operators expect the airport will help them recover from the impact of COVID-19.

Lizbeth Cayllahua, of travel agency Viajes Cusco Peru, said: "The new airport will favor us greatly. We will have greater income from tourism, impacting the regional economy."

Larger aircraft, such as the Boeing 737, Airbus 320 and Embraer 190, are widely expected to fly in once the airport is completed.

Attracting regional flights

"It is expected that the new airport will attract regional flights mainly from South America, since it is located around 3,800 meters above sea level," said Enrique Quinones, president of the Peruvian Association of Receptive and Domestic Tourism Operators.

The Chinchero facility also will eliminate the need for stopovers for international travelers heading to Machu Picchu.

The airport "will promote a new pole of tourism development in the Sacred Valley, although the necessary urban planning is still needed to avoid degrading the fragile environment in which it is being built, full of ancestral landscapes", Quinones said.

There have been some concerns regarding the construction.

"The higher the altitude of the airport, the more restrictions it has in its operations," said Carlos Gutierrez, general manager of the Association of International Air Transport Companies in Peru.

Still, the airport should make it much easier for tourists to visit, and that's boosting the hopes of travel operators.

The author is a freelance journalist for China Daily.