MEXICO CITY (AP) 鈥 The Mexican government ordered Mexico City鈥檚 old airport to cut flights by 17% Thursday, sparking warnings by airlines of possible mass flight cancellations.
The new rules scheduled to take effect by Oct. 29 would require the terminal to reduce the number of flights per hour at the airport from 52 to 43. The airport has a design capacity of around 61 flights per hour, but that has already been cut to 52 previously.
The airport has maintenance problems, including flooding or sewage smells in some areas. But the country鈥檚 airline industry chamber says that鈥檚 because the government took away the terminal's revenues to pay for an airport project elsewhere that was later cancelled.
The 春色直播 Air Transport Chamber said the new rules for the Mexico City International Airport, or AICM, would hurt passengers, airlines and industry workers.
鈥淭his unexpected reduction planned to start on Oct. 29 will imply the need to massively cancel flights, including for passengers who have already bought tickets,鈥 the chamber said in a statement. 鈥淭he real problem of the AICM is that the revenue it generates is not invested in its infrastructure.鈥
When President Andr茅s Manuel L贸pez Obrador took office in late 2018, he immediately cancelled his predecessor's partly-built project of a new, larger terminal in the nearby township of Texcoco.
Instead, L贸pez Obrador built another new terminal at an army airbase much further to the north, but passengers and airlines have been loathe to switch to the Felipe Angeles airport, because it's farther away.
Eager to portray his new Felipe Angeles terminal as a cheaper option than finishing the Texcoco project, L贸pez Obrador did not use government money to pay off investors and contractors owed for work done on the abandoned project. Instead, fees from the older, inner-city airport were used to pay them off, rather than being invested in maintenance or improvements.
L贸pez Obrador is also eager to force airlines and passengers to switch to his new but under-used Felipe Angeles terminal. Industry sources said that may have been one of the reasons behind the new flight limitation rules, though the president cited safety reasons.
L贸pez Obrador seemed to confirm Thursday that his new airport will benefit from the new rules.
鈥淕iven that we have the Felipe Angeles airport, which fortunately has (under used) capacity, well, that's the way we are going to solve it,鈥 he said.
