Mexico urged to adopt global standards for airport slot management

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has urged Mexico to adopt global standards for the management of its airport slots as opposed to the current slot system proposed by the country’s Federal Economic Competition Commission (COFECE). IATA is concerned that Mexico’s proposed system will not enable the country to maximise its air infrastructure, nor guarantee its burgeoning air industry’s competitiveness.
The system proposed by Mexico differs from global standards in the following ways:
• Slots are auctioned off, which limits competition and discourages smaller operators from either entering or expanding in the marketplace. The danger is that without competition, fares may rise to the detriment of passengers.
• With the confiscation of 10% of existing slots at the busiest airport, carriers’ route networks will be weakened, while also suffering financial penalties.
• Withdrawal of slots based on punctuality will not necessarily improve the level of on-time operations and instead has the potential to further disrupt existing schedules when slot withdrawal is as the result of uncontrollable delays.
• Imposing a “use-it-or-lose-it” threshold of 85% is not consistent with the global standard of 80% utilization to retain a slot.
Where global standards and IATA Worldwide Slot Guidelines (WSG) are concerned, WSG ensures that individual airlines are able to operate their schedules under the same set of rules on all of the routes in their network, which in turn translates into consumer benefits through efficient and reliable operations.
According to Peter Cerda, IATA’s Regional Vice President for the Americas: “The full implementation of WSG is needed to manage the precious capacity at the key Mexico City hub as well as other Mexican airports. WSG brings efficiencies that are critical for all airports—especially those with severe capacity constraints such as Mexico City. Aviation is vital to Mexico—contributing a million jobs and $38 billion annually to the country’s economy. The full and immediate implementation of WSG is critical to ensure that Mexico can benefit even more from aviation.”