The migration of a percentage of the operations of the Mexico City International Airport (AICM) to the new Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA) has generated contradictory statements between the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation.
At the beginning of May, the Undersecretary of Transportation of the SICT, Rogelio Jiménez Pons , told the media that in order to reduce operations per hour in the saturated AICM by up to 22.6%, with the objective that the airlines place more flights in the hitherto underutilized AIFA.
“It is a decree that will allow us better operating conditions, ” said the official at the beginning of May.
The news spread like wildfire and in less than a week the leaders of the national airlines sat down to negotiate with government officials. In the end, they agreed to 100 daily operations at the AIFA , from the 12 that the new airport currently houses with only six flights.
The Ministry of the Interior, in addition to the transfer of operations from one airport to another, will no longer authorize new incoming flights to the AICM, and that, immediately, national charter and cargo operations will be migrated from the AICM to the AIFA.
After the agreement was announced, the Secretary of the Interior, Adán Augusto López, said that, in reality, there was never a decree. “That decree never existed,” he assured at the morning conference.
The decree that Jiménez Pons spoke about last week was never published and the head of the Ministry of the Interior said that “what there was was an agreement between authorities and the companies that operate the airport.”
“The (commercial) airlines are going to increase the number of operations. and as of September 15 there will be another 20. This will also happen with the other two airlines (Volaris and Viva Aerobús),” said Adán Augusto López.
The official explained that in the next three months the adaptation of the cargo, warehouse and distribution areas at the new airport will be completed, with the aim that “before the end of the year all charter flights and domestic cargo are operating in the AIFA”.
