In my recent experience, taking a commercial flight, domestic or international, has become somewhat unpredictable and unpleasant. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, concerns about flights and their punctuality were occasional. Currently, at least in Mexico City, the odyssey begins with the arrival at the main airport, Benito Juárez International (AICM), as this has become a challenge in itself. For a few years to date, the access roads near the AICM have been the nodal point of the demonstrations, so it is common to see passengers running through the roads surrounding the airport with their suitcases, in a desperate attempt to avoid missing their flight. . On the other hand, Felipe Ángeles and Toluca International airports have limited destinations and, for most people, getting to them is complicated given their distance from the most central parts of the city.
Once passengers make it to the AICM, they must deal with the uncertainty of a possible flight delay or cancellation and the quality of the airline’s response should this happen. The reality is that airlines provide little information for both types of contingencies, and the answers often leave passengers unsatisfied. Beyond the reasons for the unforeseen, the way in which the airline compensates for the inconveniences generated comes into play. Are vouchers granted for meals when the stipulated waiting time is exceeded? Is transportation, hotel payment and food offered when the passenger requires lodging? Is the procedure to reschedule the flight or obtain a refund easy? Unfortunately, we passengers often only have our own experiences and it is difficult to know for sure how well other airlines solve problems.
What is certain is that, in general, the aviation industry suffered a setback during the pandemic in terms of its personnel, caused by a combination of layoffs and infections. Unfortunately, this situation has not been regularized, which is evident not only in delays and cancellations, but also in the luggage delivery service, which on certain occasions can add a couple of hours to the travel experience or, if the luck is not present, you have to deal with the loss of luggage and the cumbersome procedures to be able to recover it.
Although this situation is not exclusive to Mexico, passengers from other countries have more information than Mexicans to make decisions regarding their trips. In the United States, for example, the Department of Transportation has recently forced airlines to report and make transparent information about their cancellation policies, delays, refunds, among much more useful information, on a page called Service Control Panel to the Customer (Airline Customer Service Dashboard). In this portal you can compare the aforementioned information between airlines in a friendly, fast and simple way. For example, users can see that American Airlines, Delta, JetBlue and United have a good management and application of their policies on delays and cancellations, unlike Frontier and Spirit Airlines where the opposite happens. The information contained and the way it is presented make it relatively easy to make decisions regarding which are the most desirable airlines to travel to, regardless of the price of the ticket.
In Mexico, the website of the Federal Civil Aviation Agency contains a statistics section, which includes information on 61 of the airports that operate within the national territory. After downloading certain files, it is possible to conclude that, for example, the number of canceled flights at airports in Mexico have decreased, going from 254,402 cancellations in 2020 to 93,739 in 2021 (a decrease of around 63%) . Likewise, the number of cancellations in 2020 represented 36% of the total operations for that year, while in 2021 the figure improved by decreasing to 19%. Similar exercises can be done with delays, which allows us to see that in the first quarter of this year alone, 31% of flights were delayed, largely due to weather conditions.
It should be noted that the information on that page is not presented in a clear and digested way, unlike the American portal. Additionally, the statistics are not widely disseminated, so I dare to think that few travelers use them. Clearly, there is room to improve the quality of information. In this sense, despite the fact that information regarding flight cancellations and delays is generated in Mexico, data of greater value is required for users, as well as making a conscious effort to promote its use. Otherwise, passengers will continue traveling without the possibility of making better decisions that lead to improving our experience when flying.
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