The (new) slot war

Just as Matrix Resurrections is the aftermath of the story of years ago, the new slot war at the Mexico City International Airport (AICM) has overtones of comedy and drama, but it is undoubtedly affecting what the Association of International Air Transport (IATA) points out as the only origin and justification of air transport: the Passenger.

With more or less 180 flights canceled or postponed from the AICM to various parts of the country, Volaris is the star of this season, but not the only one. The reason seems simple, but it has its degree of complexity and in reality there are no heroes or villains, there are only consequences of a decision that has two aspects: repair the AICM and incidentally, give flights and tickets to the Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA) .

The problem of assigning slots is, in reality, an issue that has to do with what the theoreticians of the Economy studied at ITAM preach: a scarce good (the slot) that is in great demand and that, therefore, Therefore, it has a high value, so there must be rules that allow access to all players in the sector.

Already the Federal Commission of Economic Competition (Cofece) tried to intervene unsuccessfully in that market due to the saturation of the AICM, in 2013 and in 2016-17. Now, with the new limitation on the number of operations per hour from 61 to 52 in peak hours, things get complicated.

It must be said that the slots in an airport with few operations are not even designated as such, because nobody fights for them and although the air operators complain about the way in which the reductions and the allocation of slots are being established in the AICM , the truth is that almost all the airlines that operate in it belong to IATA and the rules used for this are those that IATA has tested for 60 years. It is the most efficient and the closest to equity, although some do not like it, as happened with Cofece at the time.

Of course, it is necessary to know and know how to use the mechanisms implicit in these rules (the WSG or world slot guidelines) because the way of assigning has to do with the historical use of a certain schedule, punctuality in a season and what is called the ad-hoc, which means that if a schedule is unoccupied because another company abandoned it, the new operator can claim it, but it does not count as historical.

But that war has nothing to do with the reduction itself (which was said to be temporary), but with the idea of ​​taking flights and passengers to AIFA, which has no basis. If this were true, Toluca would be bursting and it is not. What happens in the airline industry is the closest thing to the invisible hand of Adam Smith: the market moves to where the demand is.

Aviation is not governed by decrees. As much as we want to force it with legal or operational provisions, it settles where it is most efficient and attracts more passengers. Another thing is to want to promote its development, but that is another story.

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