Ever since Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) took workplace in December 2018, it has been a wild and horrible trip for the nation’s business aviation sector. The most recent choice — to purchase the stays of Mexicana and switch it right into a government-run airline — might very nicely be the strangest of all. But it surely’s not clear if it’s really any worse than the others.
Killing the New Mexico Metropolis Airport
The primary choice was really the results of a marketing campaign promise. Mexico Metropolis’s main airport was overburdened and a substitute was nicely underway. By November 2018, greater than $5 billion had been spent and it was a 3rd full, as I wrote about on the time.
When AMLO took workplace, he shut the entire challenge down, leaving it to die. As a substitute, he had a grand plan to reform the previous Santa Lucia Air Drive base on the north facet of city and create a messy regional airport technique that no airline would ever need.
Since that point, the Felipe Ángeles Worldwide Airport has been born. It value $4 billion in accordance with official sources, however a media report says it ballooned to $5.6 billion. Mix that with the $5 billion already spent on the brand new Mexico Metropolis airport and the estimated $9 billion to scrap it, and you may see how this choice is not sensible in any respect for a globally-important metropolis.
Airways rushed into Felipe Ángeles. Oh wait, no they didn’t. After all, they couldn’t ignore it, as a result of the president backed it, so that they needed to make good. Nonetheless, as Cirium knowledge reveals, service on the new airport is a fraction of the first airport on the town.
Departures by Month at Mexico Metropolis Airports
Aeroméxico is the biggest tenant with about 15 each day flights to Acapulco, Cancún, Guadalajara, Mérida, Monterrey, Oaxaca, Puerto Vallarta, and Veracruz. Volaris is subsequent with lower than 10 a day to Cancún, Guadalajara, Huatulco, La Paz, Mérida, Mexicali, Oaxaca, Puerto Vallarta, Puerto Escondido, San Jose del Cabo, and Tijuana. Viva Aerobus is in third with about 4 a day to Acapulco, Cancún, Monterrey, Oaxaca, Puerto Escondido, and Tijuana. It additionally has one of many solely worldwide flights to Havana.
The opposite worldwide flights? Essentially the most notable is Copa with 3x weekly to Panama Metropolis, however there may be additionally Conviasa with an occasional (perhaps weekly?) flight to Caracas, and start-up Arajet with 4x weekly to Santo Domingo. That’s it.
This plan has not gone nicely. Whereas there’s a ton of room up on the previous air pressure base, Mexico Metropolis’s principal airport stays saturated. Because of a near-accident in Might, operations at Mexico Metropolis have been diminished even additional. That is in concept non permanent, however the flight ranges at MEX are indicative of simply how significantly better it’s for airways than some far out air pressure base. And the cherry on prime is that in the long run, the most effective case situation is that it didn’t save a lot cash. Extra possible is that it is going to be much more pricey than the unique, superior plan.
Class 2 For Life
We all know MEX is full, so easy methods to repair it? One good way to assist cut back flying is to royally screw up your air site visitors oversight. Issues with Mexico’s system led to the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) downgrading Mexico to a Class 2 IASA ranking from the same old Class 1, which means the nation is discovered to not adjust to Worldwide Civil Aviation Group (ICAO) requirements.
What does this imply? Most significantly, Mexican airways can proceed to function what they’d been working on the time of the change, however they don’t seem to be in a position so as to add new routes and develop. That definitely helps maintain a lid on site visitors demand in Mexico Metropolis.
Additional, this restricts a US airline from codesharing with an airline in a Class 2 nation. Meaning Delta’s three way partnership with Aeroméxico is a shell of what it might and needs to be, all as a result of the nation can’t get its act collectively.
AMLO says a Class 1 ranking is coming again, nevertheless it has now been shut to 2 years because the change occurred in Might 2021, and everybody remains to be ready. Latest footage of terrorists capturing at an Aeroméxico airplane in Culiacán — to not point out the huge theft of copper wiring required to run MEX programs — haven’t helped instill confidence.
How do you distract from such systemic failures throughout the board inside Mexico? You begin a brand new airline, after all.
Mexicana Returns After a Lengthy, Lengthy Time
AMLO has a imaginative and prescient for a way he thinks air journey ought to work in his nation, and when he doesn’t get what he desires, he throws a tantrum. The tantrum this time has resulted within the choice to ascertain a brand new government-run airline.
This concept is unhealthy sufficient on its face — it’s merely not wanted — however AMLO’s plan is especially horrible.
As a substitute of a clean-sheet plan, AMLO had the navy buy the stays of Mexicana for a little bit over $40 million. Mexicana hasn’t flown in over a decade — since 2010, to be particular — and has little or no to its identify. The acquisition consists of the flexibility to make use of the airline’s model and a few buildings.
The beneficiary of this buy is… the unions which have been left holding the bag when Mexicana failed. They’ll get some cash from the federal government and they’re going to additionally undoubtedly have a distinguished place within the new airline which is able to solely make issues much less environment friendly and dearer.
There may be not room for 2 full-service airways in Mexico, particularly now that Volaris and Viva Aerobus have executed such an excellent job of protecting the nation with low-fare choices. Some might argue there isn’t room for even one full-service airline, however that’s at the very least debatable. Beginning off with burdensome union agreements and nothing else reveals that this airline isn’t going to be run to be an airline. It’s a jobs program.
What does this imply for the precise, functioning airways of Mexico? It means non-rational competitors in a market the place it’s already powerful to exist in any respect. Authorities coverage has solely made the state of affairs worse, and AMLO doesn’t appear to care. My condolences to everybody who works within the Mexican airline trade in addition to to whoever is answerable for the Aeroméxico relationship at Delta. Not less than AMLO has lower than 2 years left within the job.