Cesar Arellano Garcia
Newspaper La Jornada
Monday, April 4, 2022, p. 6
Of 77 airports in the country, more than twenty have an operations deficit, said Fernando Gómez Suárez, an analyst in the air sector. In 2021 alone, of the 27 airports in charge of the Airports and Auxiliary Services (ASA) group, at least nine reported between 396 and 2,800 domestic flights, as well as 404 to 1,800 international flights per year. But not only that, the records show that, in that same period, 1,545 passengers traveled to Tamuín, in San Luis Potosí, the lowest, and to Ixtepec, Oaxaca, 6,777.
According to official data, 35 are concessioned to four airport groups, including the Pacific, Southeast, North Center and Mexico City International Airport (AICM); others are operated by ASA, which also participates in four in partnership with state governments, and in one, in addition, with private investment. Three are managed by individuals and 14 by state and municipal governments, to name a few.
Others with the same characteristics are Toluca, which handled 2 million passengers, but last year it moved just over 130,000. The one in Querétaro currently does not have large air operations. There is also the one in Colima, which is not profitable because there is not enough demand, because although they keep the country connected, they require strategic planning and market studies.
. However, Gómez Suárez pointed out that several terminals have been dragging this deficit problem for years.
According to the movement of flights, during 2021 at the airports of the ASA network, 123 thousand 486 operations were registered, mobilizing 2 million 909 thousand 253 passengers. Includes regular commercial aviation, charter flights, air taxis, as well as general aviation arrivals and departures. The Ixtepec airport carried out 396 national operations, none international. The one from Poza Rica, Veracruz, made 1,405 flights in one year and the one from Tehuacán, Puebla, 1,614.
In contrast, the airports of CDMX, Tijuana, Guadalajara, Cancún, Monterrey, Mérida, San José del Cabo, Culiacán and Puerto Vallarta are some of the ones that mobilize the most users.
For the specialist, the authorities could raise the flight of those with low demand with good planning, because they require maintenance works. They are all salvageable, but there is no vision or executive business plan of the authorities, they are there, but they do nothing, that is the big problem
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