It is becoming more difficult for airports to return to category 1

Experts believe that the incidents at AICM leave the Mexican authorities in a bad position in the face of the inspection by the Federal Aviation Administration of the United States; they see further deterioration.

Next Wednesday marks one year since the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) downgraded Mexico's aviation safety from category 1 to 2 for failing to comply with International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) standards.

At the time, the federal government raised the possibility of recovering the category before the end of 2021 or at the latest in the first months of this year, a situation that did not occur. Experts agree that the possibility of achieving this became more complicated by the recent incidents at the Mexico City airport.

"The many incidents reported will definitely make it difficult to recover to Category 1 status," said Rosa María Montero, a consultant on aviation policy issues.

“For the authority to be able to accredit itself as capable of carrying out reliable operational safety certification processes depends on its selection, hiring and training of the necessary personnel, in number and professional quality,” he added.

To regain the status, Mexico's Federal Civil Aviation Agency (AFAC) would have to submit to its U.S. counterpart, the FAA, a structured and scheduled plan to assess the corrective actions taken and their progress.

When the FAA announced the downgrade, it found 28 points that needed improvement by the AFAC, including an increase in the number of inspectors for certain types of aircraft, updating of training programs, and modification of the Civil Aviation Law.

Inspectors are responsible for analysing incidents and accidents, but also traffic, schedules, itineraries and aircraft maintenance. They must speak aeronautical technical English and be trained according to ICAO standards.

To Juan Carlos Machorro, expert in aeronautics and airport infrastructure at the Santamarina y Steta firmThese incidents leave the AFAC in a bad position in view of the visit that the FAA has scheduled for these days.

“They have not invested the time, attention or budgetary resources required for this issue. Of the 28 points that the FAA pointed out as a lack of training and economic and human resources, I believe that we are not on the other side. In fact, there has been a deterioration for the past year,” he stressed.

Machorro therefore anticipated that Mexico will remain in category 2 throughout 2022.

“It is not difficult to anticipate this when you cut budget, personnel and an issue comes to light as a result of hiring bias in the case of flight controllers. There is a deteriorated work environment, with fewer salary and budgetary resources that do not allow you to provide adequate maintenance or technology.

“There is no room for austerity in air safety. I hope I am wrong and the government has done its job, but everything is against the audit,” he said.

For Rogelio Rodríguez, former executive of the General Directorate of Civil Aeronautics, AFAC can now recover category 1 status after the next audit, because the aviation law has been modified to ICAO standards, inspectors' income has improved and they have been trained.

However, he acknowledged that incidents involving aircraft approaching the AICM "put the spotlight on American inspectors."

If an accident occurs, it may take another half year to regain status and new files or another audit by the FAA and ICAO will be opened.

The downgrade has led to a loss of market share for Mexican airlines, as they are unable to open new routes to the United States, their main international market.

Source: El Universal