This article was translated from our Spanish edition using AI technologies. Errors may exist due to this process.

Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA) has had a slow start. After being inaugurated on March 21 by the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador , last week the president asked Mexican airlines for help to increase the number of daily operations to the new air port. In a press conference it was reported that currently only six routes are operated from the new airport: Puerto Vallarta and Mérida (operated by Aeroméxico), Tijuana and Cancún (operated by Volaris); and Guadalajara and Monterrey (operated by Viva Aerobus). The route to Villahermosa that was originally operated by Aeroméxico was replaced by the one to Puerto Vallarta due to the low number of passengers that used it.

Hector Vivas | Getty Images

As reported by Rogelio Jiménez Pons, Undersecretary of Transportation, to the newspaper El Financiero , the government will publish a decree to reduce the number of arrivals and departures that operate at the old airport (the Benito Juárez International Airport [AICM]) from 61 to 50 every hour. . These flights will be operated from the AIFA in Santa Lucía in order to reduce saturation at the old airport. Although the official did not specify the date of publication of the decree, it is estimated that it will be published in a couple of weeks and the idea is to desaturate the airspace of Mexico City, rather than activate the new airport.

“We are making a calculation; we have to start with cargo (flights), charters, with excessive flights, new airlines, in short, everything that is apparently extra, and then we start with all the airlines. We have to see how much can be allocated to other places, particularly AIFA, because it is ready, but Toluca, which worked very well, and other alternatives can also be opened, “explained Jiménez Pons .

On March 3, a resolution was published in the Official Gazette of the Federation in which it was declared that terminals 1 and 2 of the AICM are saturated. The official explained that an incentive plan is being worked on to motivate airlines to use the new airport: “We would be seeing fuel discounts from ASA (Airports and Auxiliary Services), we are looking for that scenario, but these are negotiations that take a long time. There are many things, it is a very broad topic, it involves the entire industry. We don’t want to do anything forced, but we do want them to understand that there are already very serious conditions that must be addressed.”