Construction of the new $683 million Quito International Airport is 78% complete, and it will be finished by April of 2012, Quito's Deputy Mayor Jorge Alban said Wednesday.

Alban told Dow Jones Newswires that the new airport will begin full operations in October 2012 after concluding a six-month trial period.

The new airport will replace the existing Mariscal Sucre Airport in the center of the city. It will be located in Tababela, roughly 15 miles outside Ecuador's capital.

Corporacion Quiport is leading the airport construction and will also manage and administer the airport.

Corporacion Quiport is a consortium that includes Canada's Aecon Group Inc. (ARE.T, AEGXF), Airport Development Corp., HAS Development Corp. and Brazil's Andrade Gutierrez Concessoes SA (ANDG4B.SM).

The project's senior lenders are U.S.-based Overseas Private Investment Corp. and the Export-Import Bank of the U.S., as well as the Inter-American Development Bank and Canada's Export Development Corp.

Quiport was awarded the airport's 35-year concession in 2005.

-By Mercedes Alvaro, Dow Jones Newswires; 5939-9728-653; mercedes.alvaro@dowjones.com