The Mexico City International Airport (AICM), the busiest in Latin America, will apply starting this Monday one of the most radical actions to avoid collapse: the reduction from 52 to 43 flights per hour. With this measure, assures the director of the terminal, Carlos Velázquez Tiscareño, progress will be made in the objective of reducing the influx to 40 million people annually. The goal, however, seems distant if one considers that in 2023 alone, the airfield received 48.4 million travelers, with a daily average of more than 132,000. “We have to have 40 million annual travelers no matter what, that is what we need to have to be able to pay the TUA fee.” [Tarifa de Uso de Aeropuerto]. Above 40 million is already a surplus and the fewer passengers we have, the airport and the user will be favored,” the manager declared to EL PAÍS.
The reduction in flights will only apply to domestic flights of the country's three airlines: Aeroméxico, Viva Aerobús and Volaris. The AICM management has reported that, after exhaustive negotiation, it has culminated in the reduction of 9,413 hours at the aerodrome. “It is a proportional reduction, in accordance with their seniority and their historical rights. [de cada aerolínea]. It was a complicated and complex process, but in the end a final version was reached,” admits the director and retired vice admiral, Velázquez Tiscareño. The reduction in flights will also apply for the next summer season, from March 31 to October 26, 2024. The controversial measure will only affect flights within the country, international operations are excluded.
Velázquez Tiscareño has assured that despite the obvious initial annoyance of the airlines due to this decrease in flights, the change will be gradual. The AICM has given them a reasonable time to adjust their routes and therefore, the manager assures that the passenger will not be affected. If there are any problems, he warns, it will be the airlines' full responsibility. On August 31, it was announced that the AICM would have a new reduction in operations, which would take place as of October 29 of that same year, but later it was reported that it would be until January 8, 2024.
Although they were consulted, the national airlines declined to comment on the imminent reduction of domestic routes. However, when the measure was announced last August, it was the sectoral organizations that protested against this new reduction. The National Chamber of Air Transport (Canaero) warned that this measure will affect travelers. “The underlying problem in the AICM is not the capacity of operations per hour, but the age of the infrastructure that requires greater intervention. The underlying problem of the AICM is that the resources it generates are used for purposes other than its operation and maintenance,” he indicated in writing at the time.
The battle inside the congested airport to unclog its hallways, its waiting rooms and its flights is not new. In September 2014, the civil aviation authority declared its airfield congested and limited the number of operations per hour to 61. In September 2022, the López Obrador Government determined to reduce AICM operations from 62 to 52 flights every hour. However, the director of the AICM recognized that the results of this first operational decrease were marginal because the airlines acquired larger aircraft and the millions of passengers in the terminal continued to rise. Now, the director is confident that the pressure will be significantly reduced. at the air terminal.
In addition to the reduction of operations per hour, the new AICM administration has implemented other actions such as the regulation of airlines' landing and takeoff times, known as slots, as well as the prohibition of the operation of exclusively cargo flights in this air terminal. Despite the implementation of this battery of measures, the AICM continues to be one of the most congested airfields in the world, serving 48.4 million travelers per year. In contrast, the Felipe Ángeles International Airport —one of the emblematic works of this Administration— closed 2023 with an influx of just over 2.3 million people, according to official figures.
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