Mexico: Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA) inaugurated Airspace Navigation Services

Mexico’s Secretariat of Infrastructure, Communications and Transport (SICT) has announced that personnel from Airspace Navigation Services (Seneam) have started to use the Control Tower facilities prior to the inauguration of the Felipe Angeles International Airport (AIFA), as part of an agreement to ensure its operation.

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«This agreement establishes that Seneam personnel will begin their formal activities prior to the official inauguration of the Felipe Angeles Aerodrome, in order to verify the efficient operation of aeronautical facilities and systems,» the SICT said in a statement.

Such federal agency, through the Federal Civil Aviation Agency, published on December 30 the start of the following services:

• Aerodrome Flight Information.
• Automatic Terminal Information.
• Radio aids to navigation and aeronautical telecommunications.
• Emission of Meteorological Reports and forecasts.
• Operating procedures with Military Air Base No. 1.

As a result, added the SICT, «the AIFA Control Tower will be at the vanguard of air traffic management, since it is adopting in a timely and efficient manner the infrastructure and innovative techniques in the provision of air navigation services, and it will employ approximately 30 specialists, including controllers, dispatchers, meteorologists, and engineers».

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Since it will operate simultaneously with the Mexico City International Airport (AICM) and the Toluca International Airport (AIT), it was necessary for the Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications, and Transportation to redesign the airspace, but not without some criticism.

Investments are expected to be made in the coming years for the acquisition of technology and equipment that will help improve the safety of the metropolitan airspace so that more flights can be added without losing efficiency. The estimated expenditure for the next few years to this end is 4,781 million 315 thousand 152 pesos, of which the SICT requested 800 million for this year’s budget, according to Forbes.

AIFA to be inaugurated by three airlines

Two months to go before the first commercial flight to AIFA, scheduled for March 21, with national airlines as protagonists, although foreign companies have expressed their preference for AICM.

Volaris was the first to announce its landing with flights to Tijuana and Cancun, two of the fastest growing destinations. A month later, VivaAerobus confirmed its operations with AIFA with services to Guadalajara and Monterrey, the airline also announced the opening of a service called ‘Viva Bus’, which will depart from the North Central Bus Terminal.

Conviasa is the only international airline that is planning to land at AIFA, although it has not yet confirmed the schedule of operations. Currently operating out of Toluca, landing at Santa Lucia would mean being further from the center of Mexico City.

The objective of these works is to decongest the saturated Mexico City International Airport (AICM) in the medium term, in this first stage AIFA will be able to serve 19.5 million passengers.