Estafeta’s operation at the AICM is different from that of other companies. Although by cargo volume it is surpassed by other companies, by number of flights it exceeds its closest competitors by more than double, which carries out eight daily operations with four aircraft. With this, four types of operations are carried out: the arrival of air cargo, but also packages by land from other cities, collections from Mexico City and imports from China.
At the capital’s airport, the company has a physical infrastructure that allows a package to cross a series of bands that connect one means of transportation with another, which send the package to another city by air, or to another region by land. “We go from one vehicle to another and that has to happen in hours, if not minutes”Garcia says.
Hence, moving the operation from the AICM would entail heavy investments for the company, on two fronts.
The cost of moving to AIFA
According to a comment sent to the National Commission for Regulatory Improvement (Conamer), Estafeta estimates that it would require investments of around 55 million pesos in facilities and equipment, and around 45.5 million in additional vehicles to attend last mile operations and their operating expenses.
The company estimates that moving its operations from the AICM will cost 100.5 million pesos, of which about 40 million represent an annualized expense. It also faces an arduous outlook to acquire vehicles due to the shortage of units worldwide. García confesses that he would prioritize the use of units to increase his fleet, while the vehicles to be renewed would continue in circulation for an additional time.
The company does not rule out the opening of new distribution centers to compensate for the distance from the metropolitan area, although García assures that they are also within the growth plan of the company already planned.
“If you are living one kilometer from your work today and now you move 40 kilometers, your transportation costs grow. Is the same; like us, we serve the East in the last mile of the Valley of Mexico from there and we connect with cities that come from the southeast that are at the entrance of Mexico City, Puebla, Veracruz, etc. That national distance to AIFA is toll and diesel”, says the director of Estafeta.
At the moment, the federal government does not seem to give in to the deadlines that other companies and organizations request to relocate their operations, which range from six months to a year.
Recently, the Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation (SICT) increased from 90 to 108 business days the term for companies to leave the AICM, and even said that, if weekends are taken into accountthere are 156 calendar days to move the operation, estimated at 360,000 tons of merchandise.