▲ At the start of operations, the commercial spaces are already ready, although few have opened. In the image, one of the waiting rooms.Photo Luis Castillo
Eduardo Murillo and Cesar Arellano
Newspaper La Jornada
Tuesday, March 22, 2022, p. 5
In the first minute of March 21, the Secretary of National Defense (Sedena) handed over the AIFA facilities to the majority state-owned company Felipe Ángeles International Airport, SA de CV, which will manage and operate it.
Six and a half hours later, Aeroméxico made the initial flight from that terminal, the AM890 to Villahermosa, Tabasco, with an Embraer 190 aircraft. The airline indicated that as part of the celebration of this iconic moment
minutes before takeoff, the traditional airplane bathroom
.
During the inauguration, there were 20 flights, 16 of them commercial.
The Conviasa airline from the Maiquetía Simón Bolívar International Airport, Venezuela, made its first landing at 1:23 p.m. and departed after 4 p.m.
Aeroméxico, one of the most important airlines in the country, carried out four operations, two taking off and two landing: AIFA-Mérida and AIFA-Villahermosa and back. Volaris covered the itinerary to Cancun, Tijuana and back from both points.
Viva Aerobus went to Monterrey, Guadalajara and back. The routes of the Venezuelan airline Conviasa are from Felipe Ángeles to Caracas, Venezuela, and vice versa. The Sedena explained that this is the first phase of this construction, which was completed within two years and five months, with a budget of 74 thousand 305 million pesos, 162 thousand jobs were created and the terminal occupies an area total of 2 thousand 487 hectares.
This includes the three runways, one military and two civil, the latter 4.5 kilometers long, all equipped with advanced navigation technology and adequate visual supports to operate in low visibility conditions, including a solid system of taxiways and aprons.
The AIFA has firefighting services, an aviation fuel plant, gas stations, a convention center, banks, exchange houses, the Mexican postal service, food and beverage stores, handicrafts, spahotel, aesthetics, bookstores, pharmacies, gift shops, articles of duty free and duty paidbays for transportation by buses, taxis and Mexibús, among others.
The design of the air terminal will allow a plane with up to 180 seats to be boarded in a maximum time of 33 minutes, counting from the moment travelers arrive at the airport until takeoff.
Likewise, it houses an airport city that includes hotels, restaurants, shopping centers, hospitals and various service facilities. The company Felipe Ángeles International Airport, SA de CV was formally established in December 2020, with a capital of 900 thousand pesos, contributed by Sedena and 10 thousand pesos from the National Bank of the Army, Air Force and Navy. In the first phase, the AIFA will serve 20 million people a year; in the second, to 50 million, and by 2052, it is expected that at least 90 million users will be served.
According to estimates, 5,000 direct jobs and 160 indirect jobs will be generated.
