• Mexico City cargo Aeromexico
    Mexico City International Airport
    IATA/ICAO Code:
    MEX/MMMX
    Country:
    Mexico
    CEO:
    Gerardo Ferrando
    Passenger Count :
    36,056,614 (2021)
    Runways :
    05R/23L - 3,900m (12,795ft) | 05L/23R - 3,952m (12,877ft)
    Terminals:
    Terminal 1 | Terminal 2

A month and a half into the opening of Mexico City’s new Felipe Ángeles International Airport (NLU), the Mexican authorities have stated they plan to increase the number of services by reducing the number of flights per hour at the Mexico City Benito Juárez International (MEX) and launching an incentive program to attract carriers. Is this the best idea? Let’s find out.

Forcing airlines?

During the weekend, the Mexican sub-Secretary of Transport, Rogelio Jiménez Pons, said the government plans to issue a decree reducing the number of hourly operations at the Mexico City International Airport.

The airport, which acts as the country’s leading domestic hub and second international point of entry after Cancún, would reduce the number of flights per hour, going from 62 to between 48 and 50. This measure aims to attract more traffic to NLU, the flagship airport project of Mexico’s current government.

Currently, NLU only has six daily flights (and one international every Monday by Conviasa) by three airlines: Aeromexico, Viva Aerobus, and Volaris.

The decree will be published within the following months, said Jiménez Pons.

“Right now, we are making calculations; we will begin (by reducing) cargo and charter flights, as well as new carriers and additional flights (...). Then we will move with all the other airlines. We must see how many flights can be redirected somewhere else, particularly to NLU, because it is ready, but the flights can also be redirected to Toluca.”

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The Mexican government is looking to reduce the number of operations at MEX. Photo: Getty Images.

Why take this measure?

The Felipe Ángeles International Airport opened its doors on March 21, 2022. It currently has seven domestic routes and one international. These are:

  1. Aeromexico: daily flights to Mérida, four flights per week to Puerto Vallarta, and three flights per week to Villahermosa
  2. Conviasa: one flight per week to Caracas.
  3. Viva Aerobus: daily flights to Guadalajara and Monterrey.
  4. Volaris: daily flights to Tijuana and Cancún. We made a trip report of the flight to Tijuana a month ago.

Nonetheless, the operational results have not been the expected. Between March 21 and 31, NLU had 7,076 outbound domestic passengers and received 6,640 passengers. On average, there’s a capacity for 156 passengers per flight, meaning the average load factor was 66%, including a 19% low load factor average from Aeromexico’s flight to Villahermosa. On the other hand, Volaris’ flight to Cancún had an 80% load factor in March, which is definitely not bad.

In April, Aeromexico announced and launched a new route (Puerto Vallarta) but did not add any extra capacity. Instead, it reduced the frequencies in the Villahermosa flight from seven to three and launched four weekly flights to Puerto Vallarta.

Volaris has signaled interest in flying to Los Ángeles, but it is constrained by Mexico’s Category 2 status with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

Therefore, the authorities are looking into new options to increase capacity at NLU.

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There are only a few flights per day from Mexico City's new Felipe Ángeles International Airport. Photo: Daniel Martínez Garbuno | Simple Flying.

MEX’s saturation

Moving airlines to NLU is not a whim by the current government. It is a plan to reduce the heavy loads at MEX, which has been saturated since 2014.

MEX is no longer capable of coping with the level of passengers it receives. The airport was built to handle approximately 30 million passengers, and in 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, it received 52 million.

“MEX is saturated, and it is not something that happened now. It has over 20 years saturated. It is not a slot problem; the planes MEX receive have also increased their size over the years. We began with planes with 120 seats, and now we have, on average, planes with over 200 seats,” Jiménez Pons added.

Nonetheless, NLU still faces many challenges and has not received the commercial interest the Mexican government would have wished. Therefore, the authorities are also planning to introduce incentives to attract new carriers, although there are no more details on the subject. Currently, the airport tax, paid by the travelers, is cheaper in NLU than in MEX, so that could be an interesting idea to keep exploring.

Forcing airlines into a new airport could backfire. Instead of solving MEX's saturation, the government could end up losing connectivity. If the airlines believe any given flight is not working at NLU but can't operate it from MEX, they will simply shut the route down.

Do you think it is a good idea to force airlines into a new airport to ease the saturation levels at the other? Let us know in the comments below.

Source: Expansión, Cirium.