The Mexican government has already taken off and maintains the flight plan to achieve a double objective: reduce the saturation of the Mexico City International Airport (AICM) and at the same time increase the operations of the recently inaugurated Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA).
The route outlined includes precisely the coordinates and does not consider the potential damage it will cause among the airlines that, forced, will have to make budgetary and operational efforts to fly and land from an airport that does not have sufficient collateral infrastructure.
They will have to carry out passenger and mostly cargo flights. The flight plan of the López Obrador government conveniently decreed, on March 3 – that is, 19 days before the AIFA was inaugurated – through the Secretariat of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation (SICT) the saturation of the terminal buildings 1 and 2 of the AICM.
He also instructed the director of Navigation Services in the Mexican Air Space (Seneam), Víctor Manuel Hernández, to analyze and modify the opinion on the operational capacity of the Benito Juárez airport and take into account the new airport infrastructure of Santa Lucía.
On March 21, the inauguration of what the President of the Republic has described as “the best airport in the world” was held with great resonance and controversy, with 20 flights, according to what the Secretary of Defense said at the time. National, General Luis Cresencio Sandoval González.
It was inaugurated without having the access roads ready and on its second day of operations it had 12 flights, 6 departures and 6 arrivals and, subsequently, the average has been 9 flights.
On April 27, in his morning conference, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador asked the directors of the airlines Aeroméxico, Viva Aerobus and Volaris to increase their domestic flights to and from the new airport.
He revealed that he had asked Eduardo Tricio, captain of Aeroméxico, to expand to AIFA.
Just last Monday, April 2, the Undersecretary of Transportation of the SICT, Rogelio Jiménez Pons, announced that the government is preparing a decree to limit operations in the AICM to 50 and bring 11 to the AIFA.
In other words, by decree, the government plans to reduce the saturation of the AICM and for airlines to operate more flights to and from the AIFA by reducing the Benito Juárez airport from 61 to 50 arrivals and departures per hour. Once the decree is published and its execution begins, the SICT calculates that between 48 and 50 flights per hour will be carried out at the AICM. But the plan does not end there. The intention is that in the first stage AICM operations will be reduced by 20% and in the long term it is expected to reduce to 30%.
No one will be forced, Jiménez Pons assures while affirming that the airlines Aeroméxico, Viva Aerobús and Volaris have already been notified.
It must be remembered that Aeroméxico just got out of Chapter 11 of the US Bankruptcy Law and will most likely see its costs impacted by this government decision.
Like the rest of the airlines, it comes from a zone of turbulence caused by the forced confinement by Covid-19 that shook them and hit their costs. In addition, they are all suffering from the increase in the price of fuel oil, one of the most important inputs for that industry.
According to the SCT, the possibility of offering airport discounts on the supply of jet fuel is being analyzed. However, the Tax Administration Service (SAT) and the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP) have put some obstacles in their way. The route proposed by the government, as has been seen in each and every one of the flagship works of this six-year term, is immovable. It will be carried forward, no matter what happens and whoever weighs it. It is a risky flight plan because it does not respect the laws of the market.
We will see.
Journalist
Rich and Powerful
He has worked continuously in newspapers, magazines, radio, television and the Internet, in the last 31 years he has specialized in business, finance and economics. He is one of the three hosts of the program Alebrijes, Águila o Sol, a program specialized in economic issues that is broadcast on Foro TV.