Since 2019, “extraordinary” level of congestion in the AICM: director

Cesar Arellano Garcia

Newspaper La Jornada
Monday, May 16, 2022, p. 6

Prior to the pandemic, there was already an oversaturation at the Mexico City International Airport (AICM). In documents of the ordinary sessions of the operation committee and schedules from 2021 to March of this year, of which this newspaper has copies, the general director, Carlos Morán, indicated that the capital airport is hypersaturatedbecause in 2019 it reached levels extraordinary of congestion where there were days that the permissible limits of operations were exceeded.

The documents also report on some incidents reported by Mexican airlines and a private courier company, as well as the increase in incidents on the ground.

AICM statistics refer that in 2019 it accounted for 459 thousand 987 commercial and general aviation air operations.

In one of the reports, the general director of the most important airport and main gateway to the country and president of the Operation and Schedules Committee maintains that there are a number of very significant challengesand at the airport there must be an evident quality of services, as well as the necessary warmth to receive visitors.

But not only that, he assures that President Andrés Manuel López Obrador instructed him that the air terminal return to the levels it already had in the 1990s and early this century, when it was one of the most punctual in the world, for this, says, coordination of Airport Collaborative Decision Making (ACDM) is being improved.

There is faith and confidence that the actors that are joining, such as the Secretary of the Navy itself, will help to have both the necessary security and the quality and warmth that the services provided at the airport require..

Among the incidents, Aeroméxico made a preliminary report of what occurred on December 19, 2020 and requested the AICM General Command and Operations Management to hold a meeting to gather information.

Likewise, the airline commented that on April 2, 2021, aircraft 190 operated by Aeroméxico, registration XA-ALR with flight number 2454 bound for Zihuatanejo, had to return to position, since it aborted takeoff due to flight runway incursion. Magnicharters 736. He thanked the command for trying to mitigate the risk of the event.

In this regard, the Federal Civil Aviation Agency (AFAC) responded that it is a priority to safeguard operational safety, the monitoring that is given is normative and it is necessary to investigate, in this case, the integration of all the participants in monitoring operational safety, talk about Navigation Services in the Mexican Air Space (Seneam), the Operational Control Center (CCO ), of the companies, of the aeronautical authority, as a result of which protocols are generated within each of the companies to give continuous improvement to security procedures.

The person in charge of the Operations Directorate and alternate president of the AICM Operations and Hours Committee, Francisco Quiroz, exposed an incident that occurred on January 28, 2021 at position 46 of the north platform, for which he requested the airlines and service providers reinforce the security measures in the movement area established in the operating rules of the capital airport and its ground operations manuals.

One more incident occurred on April 29, this time from the company UPS, for which the general command was requested to attend to the issue, the AFAC asked the staff to approach the command to explain how the investigation process is of incidents.

The AICM also informed that in May of last year four bird strikes were reported without consequences, it also asked the airlines to inform the date that the visit to their hangar will be carried out in order to verify if there are bird nests to mitigate them.

For its part, the AFAC He commented that the incidents on the ground have increased, so together with the Operations Directorate and the operational security area of ​​the AICM, he agreed to implement a protocol to start visiting the companies that provide services on the ground, to whom he asked for support. to coordinateadd one of the documents.