The federal government plans to reduce the total operations of Mexico City International Airport (AICM), following the incident between two aircraft on May 8.
Rogelio Jiménez Pons, Undersecretary of Transport, explained that the reduction is due to the high saturation of the airport, so they hope to distribute operations at the Felipe Angeles International Airport (AIFA), as well as toluca.
“We are setting a goal to achieve that in 12 months operations are reduced by 25%. The airport has many decades of being saturated and in terrible conditions… the objective is to reduce 25% of the operations of all airlines, including cargo and charter,” he explained in an interview with Azucena Uresti for Grupo Fórmula.
The official said that from August and September of this year the migration to other airports will begin, and maintained that the incident reported between two Volaris planes on a runway was due to an error of the controllers.
“It is a mistake that we have already confirmed that yes, unfortunately, it was the controller … for the recording that was presented, possibly there is a topic that we are checking right now, and that they have to confirm it, … if at that time there was a change of shift. One who took the step was not the same one who took the descent. We have to check that, because then here are two responsible,” said the undersecretary, detailing that those involved still do not give an official explanation of the facts.
Before the incident, the International Federation of Airline Pilots’ Associations (IFALPA) warned that the simultaneous operation of two airports has led to different incidents related to air safety.
In response, the government denied that there is an official report of incidents so far this year, following the simultaneous operation of Mexico City International Airport and Felipe Angeles, and acknowledged that it has only documented the activation of an alert in 2021.
However, the National Union of Air Traffic Controllers (Sinacta) reported that the number of air incidents has increased by 300% as a result of the redesign of space over the Valley of Mexico.
The union’s general secretary, José Alfredo Covarrubias, accused the federal government of redesigning airspace by generating more conflict zones and having fewer staff to supervise them.
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