Viva Aerobus, one of the airlines that will operate from the new Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA), sees an opportunity in the upcoming opening of the facility to speed up the transfer of goods that are bought and sold via electronic commerce, and that travel in the aircraft holds.
The directors of the airline company detailed in a conference that the airline’s operations in the AIFA will incorporate the transfer of cargo, in addition to passengers, which will be viable even without the finished terminal. “We are thinking of electronic commerce merchandise, such as those ordered on Amazon and Mercado Libre,” said Juan Carlos Zuazua, general director of the airline.
The director estimates to operate in the new airport with an occupancy factor of 80% initially, relatively lower than the usual levels of 85% to 88%.
In the medium term, the airline will also seek to continue growing in the US market, where it has been limited by the degradation of air security in Mexico as a result of an audit by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which has frozen its capabilities. in that market.
“What prevents [degradation] is opening new frequencies, it allows the maximum of the last 12 months to operate. The audit process with the Federal Civil Aviation Agency is well advanced; we had announced routes from Austin to Mexico City and Monterrey. As long as we recover Category 1, we will be able to resume our growth in the United States.”
More planes, new routes
Viva Aerobus also announced the opening of its third route to Colombia, between Mexico City and Medellín, starting on April 8. This connection will be added to the flights that the airline operates from 2021 from Bogotá to Mexico City and Cancún.
Zuazua said that the company is evaluating opening more routes between the two countries, a process in which the airline is currently studying markets such as Guadalajara and Monterrey in Mexico, as well as Cali and Cartagena in Colombia.
The secretary of tourism, Miguel Torruco, estimated that these new routes will generate traffic of around 180,000 passengers a year, and that by April 2022 the levels of tourist arrivals and spending will recover.
“At the end of 2021, 455,000 tourists arrived from Colombia with an expenditure of 518 million dollars. (This represented) a recovery of 75.5% in the arrival of tourists and 86.3% in the economic benefit compared to 2019,” he explained.
To support the opening of new routes, Viva Aerobus plans to add between 10 and 12 A320neo aircraft to its fleet this year, which would increase its capacity by up to 50% compared to 2021, when it closed with 55 aircraft in operation.
“We may add more, but we have some logistics issues from our manufacturer in Europe,” Zuazua said, referring to Airbus, which has slowed production globally since the pandemic.
The airline has spun several years of fleet growth, which accelerated a few months into the pandemic, and, above all, in the face of Interjet’s contraction and eventual exit from operations.
