The cost of operating by consultation and by decree, turning its back on scientific thought: Santamarina and Steta

May 11, 2022 /

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The government has spent hundreds of billions of pesos demolishing one airport and building another without solving the underlying problem.
What does the immediate future hold for the airport sector in the Valley of Mexico?

CDMX. May 10, 2022. Juan Carlos Machorro, partner in charge of the firm's Transactional area Santamarina and Steta and expert in aeronautics and airport infrastructure, reviewed the counterproductive measures that have generated costs and risks for the Mexican airport system.You don't play with aeronautical safety"I affirm.

For more than 30 years all serious feasibility studies have shown that the unique viable alternative is Texcoco. In the words of MITRE, Texcoco “was the ideal place…, a place aeronautically excellent".
We are suffering the result of acting on the basis of a consultation without methodological rigor and without any legal basis. Through consultation and decree, the most important airport infrastructure project in the country was cancelled and the reconfiguration of a military base was started at forced marches.
At the beginning of Covid-19, international organizations recommended that governments (i) suspend investments in new airport infrastructure projects, and (ii) allocate resources to support airlines.
In Mexico, these recommendations were not heeded and resources were spent on the construction of the project in Santa Lucía, without any government support for the airlines.
The decree aims to manage passengers through the Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA).
AICM has been in intensive care for years due to deteriorating operational and financial health.
With the cancellation of the Texcoco project, an airport that was destined to close permanently remains alive.
AICM's main income is TUA, which represented 65% of its income at the end of 2021. All TUA revenue is transferred to pay the MexCat Bonds, issued to finance the Texcoco project.
Put into context, AICM's increased income is condemned to pay the debt of a cancelled project, which will not exist for decades to come.
To date, there is no certification issued by an authority or international organization on the matter that conclusively proves that AICM and AIFA can operate simultaneously and at their maximum capacity without risk in the airspace of the Valley of Mexico.
MITRE itself confirmed at the time: “The AICM-Santa Lucía alternative is worrying as it requires the creation of an extremely complex airspace…” “…far from satisfying the needs of CDMX for much of this century, it will become re-saturated in a very short period…” “…no one has developed the required airspace study.”
Instead of reducing AICM saturation, it has increased.
The reconfiguration of the airspace in the Valley of Mexico to accommodate the operation of the AIFA has resulted in more problems than solutions. The new configuration puts pilots and aircraft operators in unnecessary predicaments, resulting in longer approach routes, delays, excessive fuel consumption and noise pollution. And this is with the AICM operating at 70% of the pre-pandemic stage.
The outlook is not promising. A dying airport (in operational and financial terms) coexisting with another whose capacities do not represent a solution to the problem.
The reputational cost of cancelling Texcoco will accompany this administration for the rest of the six-year term and ad perpetuamThe loss of economic resources is enormous. The delay in connectivity will be measured in years or decades. The damage is done. We are left to demand that the situation does not go beyond the sphere of operational security and wait for better times.