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San Diego Reacts to the Border Wall

1.3 million people have used the pedestrian bridge to Tijuana Airport since it opened last year. Photo: Paul Body

April 4, 2017 Comments (0) Views: 2595 April 2017, Cross Border, Short Stories

Bridging the Gap at the Cross Border Xpress

A year-old pedestrian bridge is making travel out of Tijuana easier. So why aren’t San Diegans using it?

The Cross Border Xpress in Otay Mesa, an airport terminal that lets travelers park their car in the United States, cross a 390-foot bridge, and fly out of Tijuana, Mexico, debuted with little fanfare over a year ago. North of the border, there was no advertising campaign letting people know they could pay $16 to use the terminal’s enclosed pedestrian bridge to walk right to Tijuana International Airport (TIJ) and dodge the wait at San Ysidro. But just a year after its opening, 1.35 million people have used the CBX terminal.

“There’s no place in the world like it,” says Elizabeth Brown, chief commercial officer of the privately run, $120-million facility.

Brown says there was talk for two decades about the need for a dual-nation airport terminal, but a shareholder with Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico—a Mexican company that operates a dozen airports in the country—helped make CBX a reality in 2007. That shareholder—who had been crossing through San Ysidro for years—developed a partnership with real estate mogul Sam Zell, and in 2008, the business duo bought a swath of land along the border fence for $34 million. After a complicated permitting process that required federal support from both countries, construction crews had to navigate two entirely different systems of measurement and building. “Engineers on both side of the border were having to solve problems through a fence,” Brown says. They also had to build the pedestrian bridge over a busy Tijuana highway.

Brown says the collaboration benefited both countries; Mexican airlines have increased their passenger capacity to Tijuana by 34 percent since CBX opened. Three out of four people who land there will also be crossing the border into San Diego.

“Mexican airlines have increased their passenger capacity to Tijuana by 34 percent since CBX opened.”

CBX is projected to move more than 2 million passengers annually, and the 33-acre site is zoned to include a 350-room hotel, retail shops, and restaurants. TIJ is also under construction, with plans to increase capacity by 25 percent.

But the next challenge for CBX has nothing to do with construction details or bureaucratic red tape, even during this postelection time: It’s getting more San Diegans to use the terminal.

Stats from 2016 show only 2 percent of CBX users were from San Diego, whereas Angelenos made up 17 percent. Why are San Diegans coming up short? Brown says the higher number of travelers coming from LA can be attributed to the larger Mexican American population there: “Los Angeles is also home to more first- and second-generation immigrants, who we have found are much more likely to travel frequently between the United States and Mexico.”

She wants to remind San Diegans that CBX is safe: All passengers there have been cleared for air travel, and “one couldn’t ask for a more secure border crossing.” Anyone going to Cabo or Guadalajara can find better deals flying out of Tijuana, since the surcharge for an international flight doesn’t apply. Want to visit China? There aren’t any nonstop flights out of San Diego, but you can get to Shanghai from Tijuana three days a week on Aeromexico—meaning you can skip the drive to LAX and being stuck on the 405. ¡Vamanos!

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