As a result of the air incidents that occurred in recent days at the Mexico City International Airport (AICM), airlines and federal authorities agreed to increase the offer of flights to the newly opened Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA), with which the authority ruled out that there is some “decree” relative to restricting operations in the AICM.
As reported by the federal government, Mexico’s airlines agreed to send more than 100 daily operations to the Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA), which currently has only 12 daily operations.
The foregoing arose after the Government agreed with the airlines to develop the country’s airline industry, during a coordination table between aeronautical authorities and the country’s main airlines, held last Monday.
Heading the coordination table, the Secretary of the Interior, Adán Augusto López Hernández, pointed out that with this effort an orderly development of aviation in Mexico can be achieved.
The agreements also included that the national and international passenger transport airlines will maintain their respective landing and take-off schedules (slots) that they have today assigned for this 2022 summer season to and from the AICM, in order not to affect the offer of services to passengers from said airport.
Likewise, a significant increase in the offer of flights to and from the AIFA was announced, to reach more than 100 daily operations, starting the first stage on August 15 and the second on September 15.
It was also said that national charter and cargo operations will immediately migrate from AICM to AIFA and it is estimated that in 90 days the fiscal and customs infrastructure will be installed to be able to receive international cargo flights from that moment.
Meanwhile, it was warned that those airlines that today operate in the AICM and that have more than a year of airport debts, fuel, taxes and rights, among other concepts, will not be able to continue their flights and will have to migrate to another air terminal, forcing them to move to AIFA.
As of this moment, no new incoming flights to the AICM will be authorized and an increase in operations beyond the slots assigned for the 2022 summer season will not be allowed.
It was also clarified that there is no decree related to restricting operations in the AICM, while it was agreed to work closely between the different government agencies, particularly with the Navigation Services in the Mexican Air Space (Seneam), the airlines and the national and international organizations of the airline industry, with the aim of continuing to offer a safe and reliable service in the country’s skies.
Finally, the importance of redoubling efforts to recover Category 1 in the classification of the different aeronautical authorities established by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) of the United States was highlighted, to allow national airlines to expand their offer. services to and from that country.
Currently, up to 900 daily operations are executed in the AICM, but in its time of greatest saturation, prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, it could exceed 1,000 operations, so the operations that the AIFA would add would represent just over 10%. of those managed by the AICM.
In 2019, the last year before the pandemic, a record level of 50.3 million passengers moved through the AICM, a figure that plummeted to 22 million in 2020 and recovered to 35.9 million in 2021.
The first phase of the AIFA, inaugurated on March 21, has a transportation capacity of 20 million people.
At the beginning of this month, the Secretariat of Infrastructure, Communications and Transport (SICT) reported that a decree was being prepared to limit the number of air operations in the AICM from 61 to 50, per hour, in order to guide a movement of operations to the AIFA.
Two months earlier, on March 3, the SICT -through the Federal Civil Aviation Agency- also declared the saturation of terminals 1 and 2 of the AICM, with which its schedule coordinator was instructed to “take carry out the review and, where appropriate, propose the modification” of the general bases for the assignment of landing and take-off schedules (slots) in airports in saturation conditions, published on September 29, 2017, which established a maximum of 61 operations per hour.
At the time, this was interpreted as the first signal to establish the limitation of operations in the AICM and redirect them to the AIFA.
Aeroméxico will increase its flights in the AIFA
Grupo Aeroméxico reported that as of the second half of August it will increase its operations (to and from) at the Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA), with the aim that by the end of October they will carry out 30 daily operations, thus offering 1.5 million seats. during the following calendar year.
Currently, Aeroméxico operates three destinations from that airport: Villahermosa, Mérida and Puerto Vallarta, an average of five operations per day. Said announcement is part of Aeroméxico’s contribution to the development of the Mexican Airport System, which was one of the points discussed at the meeting. on Monday, May 9 at the facilities of the Ministry of the Interior.
“In the near future we will inform the details of the additional flights that we will have in the AIFA, which will be possible by taking advantage of our fleet growth plan with more modern, efficient and less polluting equipment. At the beginning of 2022 we had 122 aircraft and by the end of the year we expect the fleet to be 147 aircraft,” the airline explained in a press release.
After the agency in charge of Adán Augusto López disseminated details of the meeting in which collaboration was strengthened for the development of the airline industry, the group stated: We recognize the willingness of the authorities to dialogue, which made it possible to reach important agreements for the benefit of users, workers and the industry.
Volaris falls on the stock market in coincidence with new agreement
The shares of Volaris, the Mexican low-cost airline, spun their fifth session down this Tuesday, falling to levels of 26.87 pesos per unit, equivalent to an adjustment of -17.07%, with which it erased 6,448 million pesos in its market value.
Yesterday, the airline shares closed down -2.86%, reflecting the market’s nervousness due to inflationary pressures and the increase in fuel prices. However, a factor that added volatility to the airline’s price was the agreement announced on May 10 to order the airspace of Mexico City.
Volaris accumulates days with significant falls on the stock market because the increase in fuel prices is putting pressure on airline margins, in general, since it is an international issue”, explained Jacobo Rodríguez, director of Financial Analysis at Black Wallstreet Capital (BWC ).
Although he added that the weak performance of the low-cost airline’s latest stock sessions is also explained by the recent incidents between two Volaris planes, as well as by the deficiencies that have been noted regarding the redesign of airspace and the transfer of flights. to the new air terminal.
On this last point, the director of BWC said that moving part of its operations to AIFA would increase its costs and affect the airline’s margins, in addition to the fact that there is a disincentive for short trips.
(With information from Alejandro de la Rosa and Judith Santiago)