Flight delays worsen at the capital's airport

In April, Lufthansa, Air France and British Airways had the highest proportion of delayed operations, according to the consultancy Cirium.

The redesign of airspace, saturation and neglect experienced by Mexico City International Airport (AICM) are causing more and more delays for airlines.

In April, during the Easter holidays, airlines reported delays of between 30 and 44 minutes for takeoff, according to figures from the consultancy Cirium.

The firm's report shows that Lufthansa was the airline that suffered the longest delays in its operations, as 24 percent of them suffered delays of between 30 and 44 minutes.

They were followed by Air France, British Airways, Avianca and KLM, with 16, 15, 7.6 and 7 percent of their departures with delays of between 30 and 44 minutes each.

Among Mexican airlines, Cirium only has information on Aeromexico, and in its case, 6 percent of the company's operations had delays of more than 30 minutes.

According to the College of Aviator Pilots of Mexico, the redesign of the airspace in the Metropolitan Zone contributes to greater delays in operations, since now the planes are separated further and spend more time in the air before landing at the AICM.

Juan Carlos Machorro, an expert in Aeronautics and Airport Infrastructure at the Santamarina y Steta firm, agreed that the delays are a consequence of the redesign of the airspace so that AIFA could come into operation.

"The simultaneous operation of AICM and AIFA is highly questionable in technical, logistical and operational terms," ​​he told EL UNIVERSAL.

"We need to check whether the new routes are well designed, well laid out, whether they are the most efficient and whether they actually allow air traffic to be faster and more expeditious," he said.

For Machorro, it is striking that this situation of delays occurs despite the fact that the passenger flow at AICM in 2021 was 28% lower than the levels of 2019, when the airport was also saturated.

"How is it possible that before the pandemic, when AICM was saturated and received 50 million passengers a year, these things did not happen?" he asked.

“If we compare the operation of any of the terminals operated by the country's private airport groups, such as OMA, GAP or ASUR, we do not find any airport where the experience is as tortuous as going through AICM.”

“It is not possible for AICM to be operating under these conditions. There are delays in air operations and this is also reflected in ground operations,” the expert said.

The causes of delays at AICM are varied, but in addition to the typical congestion during the holiday season, there is also bad weather or a lack of crew on the airlines.

Regarding the proposal to increase operations at AIFA to ease congestion at AICM, only the Mexican airlines—Aeroméxico, Volaris and Viva Aerobús—agreed to increase their number of operations at Santa Lucía and even at the Toluca terminal.

However, until now no foreign airline, with the exception of Venezuela's Conviasa, has shown interest in operating in the AIFA.

Source: El Universal