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By THE PULSE NEWS MEXICO STAFF

On its second day of operations, passengers slated to travel from Mexico’s new Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA) were advised on Tuesday, March 22, that their flights would instead leave out of Mexico City’s Benito Juárez International Airport (AICM).

The new airport, which was less than 50 percent operational at its official opening by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) on Monday, March 21, was almost empty on Tuesday, with just six flights scheduled, three going to Cancún, Mérida and Tijuana and three returning.

And to make matters worth, half of the passengers on the Tijuana and Cancun afternoon flights were rescheduled for the AICM.

Travelers on Volaris flights 1010 and 1012 to Tijuana and Cancun at 13:20 and 13:27, respectively, reported having serious problems getting to Santa Lucía, so they were rescheduled to leave at night from the Benito Juárez Airport in Mexico City.

“We were supposed to arrive with enough time to visit to the Mammoth Museum, but we spent more than two hours getting lost because there are no signs. We ended up in some empty farmland, and, in the end, the airline could not neither print nor scan our boarding passes. So they rescheduled us to Benito Juárez,” said Javier Rivera Frías, who had planned to arrive in Cancun at 1:27 p.m.

On board the Mexibús return flight, more passengers were rescheduled to the AICM.

“I took an Uber from the Miguel Hidalgo area to Metro 18 de Marzo, and from there I took a bus that left me at the Ojo de Agua Mexibús terminal. I left my house at 10 in the morning and I arrived here at 12:30 for my flight at 1:20 p.m., and then at the baggage check they said it would be a 30-minute walk to the plane. That’s why they changed us to the AICM,” said Adrián Bojórquez, who was flying to Tijuana.

Raúl Rosendo, a 36-year-old from Guerrero who was going to Tijuana, said that he left Chilpancingo at 5 a.m., arrived at 8 a.m. in Mexico City and at noon at the AIFA at a cost of 1,000 pesos for a taxi.

“I ended up spending more time than what the bus would have taken me,” he said.

“(The new airport) is very far and there are no signs and we went into the fields. I arrived in time for my flight, but there was a line to check in. They told us at Volaris that the transfer to the boarding gate to the plane would take 30 minutes, so due to the volume of people they began to deny us boarding passes and in the end they changed our airport to Benito Juárez to leave at 10 at night.”

Meanwhile, the only international flight to arrive at the AIFA so far was from Venezuela’s Conviasa airlines, whose passengers arrived for the inauguration on Monday, only to spend a couple hours in the new airport before returning to Caracas, a courtesy to AMLO from President Nicolás Maduro, so the López Obrador could claim that Felipe Ángeles has international travelers.