Photo: Amazon

By THE PULSE NEWS MEXICO STAFF

Although Mexico’s new Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA) is set to be inaugurated with great fanfare by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) on Monday, March 21, the initial takeoff of its operations will be extremely limited, with just12 daily flights from three airlines, while the Mexico City International Airport (AICM) that it is intended to replace has 889 daily flights.

According to government sources, during its first month of operations the AIFA will have 360 ​​takeoffs and landings, which is equivalent to only 9 hours 45 minutes of AICM air operations.

In February, the AICM had 24,916 operations, which on average means 889.8 per day and 37 per hour, according to the latest statistics from the air terminal.

Mexico’s Volaris, Viva Aerobús and Aeroméxico airlines are slated to move 56,520 passengers together, considering the capacity of the planes they will use..

In the case of the Beijing-Daxing airport, it began operations with seven domestic flights. The forecast is that this year it moves 45 million passengers; 72 million in 2025 and 100 million by 2040.

To launch the AIFA, Viva Aerobús announced four single flights a day to Guadalajara and Monterrey, Volaris opens with four daily flights on the routes to Tijuana and Cancún, while Aeroméxico announced another four to Villahermosa and Mérida.

Initially, Aeroméxico announced the operation at AIFA from April 1, but later announced that it would have flights from the opening day.

Fernando Gómez, an air analyst, explained that one of the main objectives of the AIFA is to help decongest the AICM, but for that to happen, it must absorb at least 30 percent of the capital’s airport capacity.

If the movement of passengers of the AICM in 2019, prior to the pandemic, of 50 million people is considered, the AIFA would have to transfer at least 15 million to meet the objective of decongesting the capital’s airport.