Honduras will build a $163 million international airport in the center of the country, designed to improve on the poor safety record of the existing airport in the capital city, authorities said on Thursday, according to Reuters. The project will be led by a consortium between local firm Inversiones EMCO and Flughafen Munchen, the operator of Germany's Munich Airport, which will invest $87 million and receive a 30-year concession. The rest of the money will come from the Honduran government and a Spanish cooperation fund. The Central American country's capital, Tegucigalpa, is surrounded by hills, and its airport has a reputation as one of the most treacherous in Latin America due to a difficult approach and short runway of less than 6,000 feet. The new airport is meant as an alternative "so that passengers can land in an airport that does not put their lives at risk," Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez said at a press conference. Passengers now are known to cross themselves and pray when planes approach land in Tegucigalpa and applaud after a successful descent. In the most recent fatal accident, in 2011, 14 passengers died after their plane crashed into a hill near the airport. The worst accident was in 1989, when a Boeing commercial jet crash killed 131 people. The new airport, with a longer, 2,440-meter (8,005-foot)runway, will be some 65 kilometers from the capital near the Palmerola military air base. It is expected to open in 2018 and is part of the government's plans to improve the country's infrastructure and communications, mostly through private concessions. There was no announcement as to the fate of the existing airport.
