Tania Carro Toledo, undersecretary for communications and transportation told the National Transportation Infrastructure Forum last week that the country’s airport sector employed more than 1 million people in 80 airports, 1,529 airfields and 584 heliports.

Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico will upgrade 12, including Guadalajara, and Asur will work on nine in the southeast of Mexico, including Cancún international. The government-owned operator Aeropuertos y Servicios Auxiliares will take on four projects and Grupo Aeroportuario Turístico Mexicano another two.

The airport upgrades are part of the Plan Mexico introduced by the government of Claudia Scheinbaum after its election last year. This is intended to unite business groups and government agencies in a coordinated development effort.

The plan includes an industrial policy that stresses import substitution backed up by a science and technology plan. There are also ambitious social programmes, including the building of 1 million affordable homes, an infrastructure plan that includes the investment of $58bn in extending the rail network and the development of the country’s poorer regions.