Revert air degradation before 2023, the goal

Against the clock, the Secretariat of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation (SICT) works on the corrective plan that allows Mexico to reverse the degradation in terms of aerial supervision by the United States aeronautical authorities, which this November is already one and a half years old.

On going

If everything goes as planned by Jorge Nuño, who is in charge of the dispatch in ownership of the SICT, it would be in April or, at the latest in May 2023, when the Mexican air regulator, the Federal Civil Aviation Agency (AFAC), achieve the long-awaited recategorization from level two to one, which will allow Mexican airlines to once again expand their operations to US soil.

“Two months ago I took office and it was a pending issue. I gave myself the task of sitting down and seeing what was needed. There was some progress, but that was not what was important, but to go with the FAA and see where we have to go with the advice we have with them. We could already see that we can have a positive corrective action plan to be finalized in December of this year,” said Nuño Lara on the last day of October.

specific effort

Information from the SICT states that among the critical points that must be resolved in the following weeks, the following stand out: allocation of human resources (additional positions) and financial resources (sufficient budget for the operation of the AFAC), training of current personnel and of new entry into the different areas, specialties and teams that operate in Mexico and the integration of Aviation Medicine to the AFAC.

The SICT schedule contemplates presenting the latest version of the corrective plan to the Federal Aviation Administration of the United States (FAA) this December, to later meet officials of said agency in January 2023 to fine-tune details.

Until 2023

If there are no further observations, AFAC would be ready to undergo a new audit, which would take place throughout February. The corresponding evaluation by the FAA would be carried out in the following weeks and, at some point in April or early May, the verdict would be ready.

The recategorization on those dates would be crucial so that Mexican airlines can plan their itineraries thinking about the high season of summer 2023.

For now, the second week of November it was learned that the SICT is preparing various modifications to the Civil Aviation Law with which it seeks to consolidate the AFAC as a decentralized body and grant it the necessary powers to exercise its authority. The reforms, in essence, establish the separation of attributions in aviation matters from the SICT to the AFAC.

alejandro.delarosa@eleconomista.mx