Transportation officials in Mexico said Wednesday they would effectively force airlines to use a new, more remote airport that was a pet project of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. López Obrador opened the new Felipe Angeles Airport in March, 27 miles north of Mexico City.

But rail and road links to the new terminal are not yet complete and airlines have been reluctant to change flights from the still-operating city center airport. Currently, only half a dozen flights per day use the new terminal.

But transport and infrastructure secretary Rogelio Jimenez Pons told local media that the government had decided to cut the number of flights allowed to land at the old airport by 20%. The reduction will begin in July and could force around 10 daily flights to the new terminal. The government had previously said any new flights scheduled to Mexico City will have to use Felipe Angeles, but the new discount applies to existing routes.

Jimenez Pons said the old airport needed to reduce traffic because it is overcrowded and needs updating. He said airlines can choose to fly to the Felipe Angeles terminal or an even more remote and largely unused airport in the nearby city of Toulca to the west.

López Obrador has used pressure and threats to try to get private and foreign companies to shore up his pet infrastructure plans and projects – state-run ports, terminals and rail lines that could become elephants white unless the private sector stimulates them with real traffic.

In recent weeks, the president has threatened legal action for pressuring a US gravel company to agree to operate a tourist resort and cruise ship dock in a gravel pit it owns on the Caribbean coast. The two sides have apparently reached an agreement, but López Obrador has accused the company of violating its terms – which the company denies – and said this week he would file a legal complaint against it.

Felipe Angeles Airport is so far from the city center that all major international airlines and many taxi services have avoided it. At peak times, the journey to the terminal can take 2.5 hours. So far, the only international flight is operated by a Venezuelan carrier which is under US sanctions and only serves Caracas.