This adjustment implied a cut in landing and takeoff times –or slots– assigned to airlines, mainly for airlines such as Aeroméxico, the then operating Aeromar and Volaris. The adjustment, which was announced as temporary, has been extended for two seasons and there seems to be no sign that it will be reversed any time soon.
Until now the efforts of the airlines have concentrated on the domestic market, but they have also indicated that, when there is a recovery of Category 1, they will go for the market lost to their US competitors. But in the AICM there is no longer room to increase operations.
“There are no more slots available, unless you want to slots at unsaturated hours, such as early morning,” said Carlos Velázquez Tiscareño, director of the AICM, in an interview with Expansion Some weeks ago. “They can enter it until 2025 in the summer season, we have not yet started working with it. They can start submitting their applications and working with the AFAC through their new routes”.
More routes in the AIFA?
One of the alternatives for airlines would be to take advantage of the slots they already have authorized and change the route; that is, if they operate to a national destination, use the same schedule for a flight to the United States.
Another alternative would be to expand to the United States through the Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA), which may not be viable for this market.
“There will be a shortage of slotsthey are going to be needed to return to Category 1. Aeroméxico has at least 40 or 50 new planes that they recently incorporated, and which are mainly destined for the commercial destination of passengers with the United States”, warns Pablo Casas Lías, director of the National Institute of Aeronautical Legal Investigations (INIJA).
So far, the only sample of how a route to the United States from AIFA could turn out has come from Aeroméxico.
The airline – which can operate this route from AIFA since it stopped flying a similar one from AICM – has been operating a daily flight to Houston since May 1 with its Embraer 190 equipment, with a capacity of 99 passengers. According to AFAC data, last month the airline transported 2,871 passengers on this route, with a load factor of around 49%; that is, with a demand that used practically half of the capacity of the aircraft.
The main challenge is that the AIFA still does not have the level of domestic and international connectivity that the AICM offers so that travelers can make different stopovers. “AIFA does not have land and air connectivity, which will imply that passengers will arrive who want to connect to Cancún, Guadalajara or Monterrey, and they do not have that connection,” emphasizes Casas Lías.
At the moment, the industry hopes to be able to grow from the AICM to the United States, but it does not rule out the AIFA either.
“It is a matter slots, but it is something that is needed and that will also help AIFA a lot,” Diana Olivares, general director of the National Chamber of Aerotransportation (Canaero), recently said. “The important thing is to already have the Category 1 permits to return to the United States, especially in the passenger part, but let’s remember that cargo also had its impacts, just like helicopters and air taxis.”