Mexican president says airport serving capital to operate by 2021

Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said construction on an airport north of Mexico City will begin on Thursday and the site will open by 2021, despite a slew of legal hurdles that have slowed work on the project.

The airport, a military base in Santa Lucia to be converted into a commercial airport, is meant to replace a part-built $13 billion airport that Lopez Obrador canceled, calling it costly, geologically unsound and riddled with corruption.