The Expenditure Budget Project (PPEF) 2023 projects a bag of resources of 661.7 million pesos for the Federal Civil Aviation Agency (AFAC) in 2023, a considerable increase compared to the previous two years, when it fell sharply. In 2021 it was even less than 400 million pesos and this year it barely reached 500 million.
The increase is proposed at a time when the aeronautical authorities have not been able to recover Category 1 in the International Aviation Safety Assessment Program (IASA, for its acronym in English), since it has been one year and four months since that was downgraded by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to Category 2.
The project sent to the Chamber of Deputies contemplates 632.7 million pesos for the category of personal services, 38% higher than the amount approved for this year’s fiscal year.
This is the largest increase in the budget proposal for the agency, since the operating expense was budgeted at 28.9 million pesos, which, despite assuming a 6% increase with respect to the Expenditure Budget approved for this year, is far from the 107.2 million pesos approved for 2019.
The category of other current expenses, also contemplated within the Expenditure Budget, also had a rise of 6%, which would stand at 17 million pesos if approved. This would be the highest amount in nominal terms since 2017.
AFAC has been pressured to increase its budget – specifically, the part of salaries – based on the audit carried out by the FAA between October 2020 and February 2021, which brought Mexico to Category 2, which prevents domestic airlines add additional capacity to the United States.
This situation has been taken advantage of by US airlines, which have increased their participation in key markets for US tourism such as Cancun, through greater capacity.
According to estimates from the National Tourist Business Council (CNET), national airlines have lost around 9,200 million pesos, with a loss of 2.3 million passengers until last June.
