Houston Airport System Director Mario Diaz (no relation to the author), delivered his annual State of the Airports address to a filled ballroom inside the Marriott Marquis hotel on Monday afternoon.
“We have accomplished so much in the last 13 years,” said Diaz in reference to what he and his team have produced during his tenure.
Diaz’s comments were essentially his opening words to his speech, but what Diaz and his team failed to accomplish on this day was a working teleprompter.
“These are the men and women. These are the men and women. Uh, we are having a little technical difficulties with this,” said a perplexed Diaz.
The delay in Diaz delivering his speech is somewhat symbolic of how the airport director has failed to deliver on a new international terminal for nearly a decade.
But, stop the presses!
“We see the light at the end of the tunnel,” said Diaz.
You read right, the project is coming together as Diaz unveiled new images to the crowd.
“We’re making significant progress with the largest capital improvement projects in the history of the Houston Airports,” said Diaz.
However, the fact remains the redevelopment project of the Mickey Leland International Terminal is costing hundreds of millions more than originally sold to the public.
Mayor Sylvester Turner told KPRC 2 Investigates in July he expects the project to ultimately cut the budget by $200 million.
However, a Houston Airport official said the budget has not gone down and remains at a staggering $1.43 billion. A key fact Diaz never told this crowd during his annual speech.