New airport threatens Machu Picchu and Sacred Valley – 16/05/2019

In 2012, the president of the time Peru, Ollanta Humala, announced a new project Chinchero International Airport, Cusco Region. Seven years later, the current president, Martín Vizcarra, has relaunched the plan and clearing work has already begun.

This alerted the scientific community, who warned that the new terminal, which will be larger than the current in Cusco, increase tourist pressure in Machu Picchu and damage other archaeological sites, which will become "on the radar" thousands and thousands of tourists who arrive in the region each year.

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The central point of the project is that the current airport, Alejandro Velasco Astete, of Cusco, has the capacity to accommodate only small and medium sized aircraft, as it is located between mountains and in the center of the city. The new one will be built in the Chinchero area, about 30 km from Cusco and on a clear plateau at 3,800 meters altitude, which will allow the landing of larger planes.

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The project includes an air terminal that can accommodate up to five million people a year, with possibilities of extension to eight million euros.

Today, Machu Picchu, Peru 's main tourist site, welcomes a little over one million people a year, which is already to double the recommendations of the Unesco for a correct conservation. In fact, the Peruvian government was forced to take measures to limit the entry of tourists into the citadel of the Incas or at least in certain areas, in order to facilitate their conservation.

Another fear is that the noise and vibrations produced by aircraft turbines damage the ruins. And that such work would have side effects difficult to predict, such as installation of new hotels and restaurants where the improvised construction of inns, shops and services for workers.

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Thus, the new airport would endanger not only Machu Picchu, but also the archaeological sites of Chinchero and surrounding areas, which nowadays receive very few visits. Chinchero is in the Sacred Valley, one of the first regions conquered by the Incas in the 13th century, a food-producing area where several emperors built their homes.

In the area chosen for the construction of the new airport, there is little evidence of pre-Columbian peoples, but archaeologist Alan Covey, of the University of Texas, points out that it is because of the fact that it is not the same. there have been few explorations there. The fear of scientists is that the new infrastructure ruin with an archaeological heritage still unknownand for this reason, they sent a letter to the government, which already adds 5,000 signatures, demanding the termination of the project.