Mexico has given up time slots (known as slots) to U.S. airlines at Mexico City’s main airport, AICM, President Claudia Sheinbaum admitted in her morning briefing Monday. The announcement comes just days after the United States decided to cancel 13 Mexican routes, accusing Mexico of not respecting cargo routes when it moved cargo operations with the country near AIFA, the other airport on the outskirts of the city, built in the previous government to decongest the main airport.
“For a few weeks, a slot distribution has been carried out in which Mexican airlines give up their slots to US airlines in a competitive framework,” the president said in his morning conference from the National Palace. “This is an internal agreement that Mexican airlines signed up to,” Sheinbaum said, following pressure from Washington to withdraw his country’s cargo operations from the AICM.
The recent cancellation by the United States of 13 Mexican routes in retaliation for the Latin American country’s alleged failure to comply with the 2015 air treaty has also put the fate of millions of tons of goods moving towards the center of the country on the ropes. Washington accuses Mexico of unilaterally changing cargo routes starting from 2023 by ordering the transfer of these flights from the capital’s airport, AICM, to the Felipe Ángeles aerodrome, in the State of Mexico.
Without going into detail, the president said a new digital slot management system would go live next year to improve distribution among airlines, “so that there can be sufficient competition and distribution across all of them.”
The Felipe Ángeles Airport (AIFA), built by the López Obrador Government with an investment of 75,000 million pesos, was the option proposed by the federal government to provide a solution to the congested Benito Juárez Airport, in Mexico City. In this sense, Sheinbaum indicated that his administration has spoken with the US Department of Transportation to have both air bases function as a single system in the metropolitan area of the country.
“What we want is for the two airports to have enough flights and be part of a system, it is not a question of whether it is AIFA against Benito Juárez or the cargo on one side or the other,” he said. Meanwhile, the president specified that she had met with American cargo airlines, who told her about some difficulties in the AIFA customs area which are already being examined for improvement.
Since its inauguration in March 2022, AIFA has to date boasted a transfer of almost 900,000 tonnes of goods. Three years after its inauguration, this air force headquarters has made cargo flights one of its business pillars. However, by order of the US Department of Transportation, two routes already operated by Aeroméxico from AIFA to Houston and McAllen would be canceled starting November 7, along with 11 future routes by Aeroméxico, Volaris and Viva Aerobus.
