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Theres too more besides what you covered. Here are some facts on this topic: -The canceled airport was supposed to be built on a dried lake. The roads surrounding that place are ALWAYS in maintenance. ALL the time they have to keep filling with rocks and stuff so cars can keep going. The maintenance costs were to raise as high as the whole airport cost within only 5 years! Who were supposed to do this maintenance? ghost companies made by the former president Peña (The one who started the project). Those companies "exist" in abandoned fields, and the owners are name lenders. Please read about "La estafa maestra" in Mexico, a whole money laundering schema made by Peña's party. -494,200 acres of land near the airport were stolen from farmers. The armed arm called "Antorcha Campesina" from the former president Peña's party were ment to have them. That group invades land all over central Mexico with Peña's party on their side and suddenly they owned all that land to build whatever they wanted in a prime spot. -Control Tower was supposed to be built by one of Peña's favorite contractors, that company was responsible for the killing of a family in an car overpass that fell. No person from the contractor or government agent was blamed by that accident. -250 civilians non related to the project died in 1500 car accidents involving lorries from the airport. They were payed A LOT. They were payed 5 months minimum wage for each 10 mile trip of materials coming from illegal mines. They drove like bas***** because they were payed astronomical numbers, something a professionist doesn't make a month but for each DAY. Who payed those truckers those huge numbers making no sense at all? Every tax payer. -Illegal mines were established and authorized in a matter of days. Suddenly people were living NEXT to them, government said they only authorized a few but that was complete lie. Look for them, theres tons of info about this. People died because their homes suddenly fell trough a hole they didn't have the prior week. They caused a natural disaster everywhere, rivers were deviated, complete forests were destroyed. There were HUNDREDS of illegal miles -You didn't mention a key fact, the actual government plan also involves an abandoned airport built a few years ago in Toluca, that airport was supposed to serve as a relief for Benito Juarez' airport, but guess what? even more corruption from Peña's party back in the day: A train was being built to connect that airport to Mexico City but it was suddenly abandoned, huge columns were put in place but it was discovered they used non standard quality materials, so they needed to dismantle EVERYTHING and build it again. Peña's party favorite contractors won HUGE numbers, since they were never held responsible for this. They were payed, they abandoned everything and went back to Spain, Peña's favorite country. Keyword for all of this: Corruption. I'm not saying this new government is not corrupt because that would be hilarious, but believe me, canceling that giant corruption palace was the right thing to do. PS: It was never going to make it to 2020, 4 years of construction and only had at 20% progress.
Santa Lucía AirPort will not be the solution. Our communist president made a big mistake cancelling Texcoco airport. Santa Lucía is 3 hours away from Mexico city because of the terrible traffic and the place where it was built is really dangerous. Connections between the 2 airports are imposible. Few people are using the new airport. Is a very big failure of this administration
@@kareinoso 3 hours? get a car, it is not 3 hours away, it is only one. You might not like this piece of **** president but you are as bad as him spreading bullshit.
As a Mexican aeronautical engineer, I can say that you cover most of the important points, but it goes waaay beyond since we also have the Toluca airport and the Felipe Angeles airport is situated around dangerous terrain, but I really appreciate that people outside Mexico are starting to look at this issues, we need more pressure to make things change.
Since I found Toluca airport only use MEX for internacional. TLC it's empty, easy to get there by car, park for $180 a day, no queus, no delays... Just 👌.
One current problem you forgot to mention is ground connectivity to new airport is not yet finished. So nobody wants to fly there. Airlines cannot operate flights to where nobody wants to go. Felipe Angeles airport is only taking 6 flights a day. I believe ponce the ground connectivity projects are completed airlines will be able to sell more tickets to this airport.
@@MentourNow I would say it is aviation-related, since it strongly effects the airport experience for the passengers and thus the traffic patterns. Much like hypothetically scaling up security making it a much longer and more complicated process would be related. Great video by the way, thank you.
this is a problem we have in Australia too. Canberra has a very nice newly refurbished/modernised terminal and upgraded facilities for ground crew and runway approach and landing, and it's located relatively close to Sydney, which is hugely overworked, causing the search for a new site more than 200+ km away to build another airport at either Goulburn or Badgery's creek.... but the reason that Canberra's lovely airport isn't really utilised by Sydney traffic is because there are no high speed transport links between Sydney and Canberra. it's incredibly frustrating and successive state and federal governments have known about this for 30+ years but still have not actioned anything. but we now have Qatar return to Canberra as part of a mini hop to Melbourne for international flights (Melbourne a much further distance to Canberra than Sydney)
A lot of U.K. airports are miles away from the cities they serve (east midlands and Manchester for example) because they started out as ww2 RAF bases… I’m guessing they didn’t want any bombers to fail a takeoff near civilisation… Or to provide landing strips right next to major cities if the Germans successfully landed at any of them.
They shouldn’t have been allowed to build up to the border of the airport to allow for future expansion. Other smaller airports have made people move if their home was too close to the airport.
Resident of Mexico City here, let me explain you what happened with Texcoco airport. The new president, AMLO which came into power in 2018, decided that Texcoco was full of corruption and unviable. He never showed proof of neither allegation, but still he decided to cancel it because he wanted to destroy whatever business the last administration had in Texcoco (he sees them as his enemies). So he already decided to cancel it but he didn't want to have the responsibility of all the money that was going to be lost, so he made a "referendum" for the people to supposedly decide by themselves. The thing is this "referendum" was full of irregularities, for example all the voting booths were setup exclusively where his supporters lived, so naturally the referendum's result was to cancel it. He never cared if the aiport was adequate or anything, it was just a political vendetta for him, meanwhile all of us tax payers and people who use airports will pay for the cancellation costs for a long time. You see the thing is that AMLO has many supporters in Mexico, or more properly: fanatics. Imagine the most staunch, hardcore and die-hard supporters of Trump in the USA, the ones who will hear no reason or argument, well same thing with AMLO supporters, whatever the president says it's like god himself has spoken. So if he says AIFA (the aiport he built as an option to Texcoco) is a better alternative to Texcoco then that's it, there is no more discussion. The thing is the AIFA has already opened a couple of months ago and right now it's kind of laughing stock, nobody uses it, people still book their flights exclusively in AICM (the old airport in the middle of the city). He is doing all that he can to force people to use AIFA, he is trying to make AICM more expensive, he is trying to coerce airlines into using the new aiport, among many other tactics. And still people won't use it, why? Because it's over 2 hours to get there, while the old aiport is 15 minutes to 1 hour depending on where you live in the city (Texcoco was also pretty close, not 2 hours away). He is also spending mountains of money to make it more accesible, he is extending railway, making new roads, etc. etc. so the real costs for AIFA have already been much higher than he projected/promised. It will be some time until we see if it's a complete failure, but right now things are not looking good and we are still stuck with the old (unsafe) airport. There was absolutely no problem with Texcoco, many international organizations agreed that it was technicaly feasable and a good option, yet AMLO convinced millions it wasn't just to have his way.
I hope they resolve this before the 2026 World Cup if Mexico City is designated as one of the locations to host. I can only imagine how much additional traffic there's going to be
Hey there Petter, absolutely fantastic video as always. Just some things you might want to know, first, the cancellation of Texcoco was because the new government said it was built with “corruption” event though there was not enough evidence to claim that. Mexico has been suffering from corruption for several years now, but the airport project was never founded to be in some kind of corrupted deal. The ironic part is that the Felipe Angeles airport was built by the army, and the highest ranks have actually been founded to be corrupt and have several lawsuits. Also, the government that was building Texcoco was found to be corrupt too, but they haven’t found any evidence of corruption on the airport so far. On second place, the problem with the airspace is really complex, the city is surrounded by mountains on three sides, south, east and west, so the only avaible place for the planes to arrive is from the north. The problem is that Felipe Angeles departures and arrivals cross with the arrivals from Benito Juárez Airport, this caused for a redesign of the airspace back in may- June last year, and thats when all the incidents began to happen. So far ATC unions and pilots unions have reported 43 incidents in the span of a year, while the government claim to have only one report from June 2021. Third and last, after the near crash in the runway, government authorities said they were going to change some things in the airspace and how it was being managed, but after 2 months, nothing has happened or changed. The former director of the Navigation Dept. (the one who resigned) fired many of the most experienced ATC controllers in Mexico city and replaced them with his family and friends. Several controllers who were fired raised their voice and have already reached the national news. In conclusion, many things have lead to what has been happening, but overall its just poor government management and corruption.
You forgot to mention that one of the "arguments" to cancel the NAICM was that the AIFA would we a lot less expensive, which in the end was a lie because it's final cost was a lot higher. Also that it was catalogued as "national security matter" which means nobody will be able to audit it and they'll have enough time to erase the evidences of all the screwed things the army did to construct it. But they still say that they're not corrupt.
Agree 100%, plus, the new airport looks like a bus terminal hehe From what I've heard, for the next couple of years, the idea is to relieve the traffic in mexico city with the help of Monterrey and Guadalajara airports, mainly to reduce the activity of aeromexico while they figure out how to solve the problem
Corruption is always to blame in Mexico. It doesn’t matter which party reigns, it’s always the same shit show. The USA is also going towards that route.
A big problem with the current situation in Mexico City is that most airlines will want to fly to the old airport despite the smaller capacity simply because it is more convenient for passangers. If you have a choice to arrive at an airport close to the center of the city or one where you would have to spend a decent amount of time to get to that city, most people would prefer the first option. This is something you can also see in other cities where they tried the 2 airport approach to alleviate the pressure on the old airport. Another nice example is Dubai. You can fly to DXB and be downtown in 15 minutes or you can fly to DWC, the newer airport outside the city with room for up to 6 runways in the future but you are 45 minutes away from the downtown area. DWC was once intended to replace DXB but after building the first terminals and starting operations, Dubai decided that since most airlines preferred DXB, they would attempt to expand that airport instead despite it being surrounded by the city.
Almost like leaving a huge project abandoned, that already had systems to prevent deterioration during the construction process itself will eventually lead it to rot and crumble, like anything left abandoned. Stupid chairo.
A key factor is Mexico’s topography, the volcanos and mountains surrounding the city in all quadrants require a very tight arrival design to accommodate a lot of traffic, now with one additional airport sharing that narrow airspace. This increases costs for airlines as well, we always carry extra fuel to mmmx expecting several delays and holdings, and lets not even mention when theres bad weather in the vicinity.
I used to fly in and out of MEX often when I lived in Mexico. The amount of chaos back then was crazy enough, I can't even imagine the chaos now with two airports so close together. Mexico City is trying to become like New York, with its three airports jammed together. The biggest different between NYC and Mexico City, however, is that the Mexico City government is notoriously slow and corrupt in every aspect of construction and regulation. I hope they can fix this problem soon before something tragic happens.
@ESUSAMEX so you knew that info about NYC govt not having anything to do with the case but wanted to do your contribution to information war against 4T?
@@ajga5435 A new airport that will NOT SINK and will alleviate congestion, constructed in a fourth of time and cost, is pandering Your love for corruption is impressive
As someone already mentioned ground connectivity to AIFA (Felipe Angeles) is poor and currently only has ONE working runway. I'm not sure what's the status of things like ground radar and such but AIFA has several issues. I live less than an hour away from where AIFA is located and yet due to the poor conditions of the roads AND how small they are for the traffic they hold, the trip can take up to two hours. It's nowhere near enough for the communities around them, let alone to hold the traffic of an airport back and forth. The AIFA is also already showing signs of wear and tear despite barely being in function, it's not a bad airport and I'm sure it could hold as much traffic as CDMX but it's not yet where it needs to be, and the huge amount of infrastructure that's needed cannot be reliably built in three years or less than a year. Hell most of these roads barely even hold up 10 months before the next rain season completely obliterates them. They always use very poor quality materials. I don't even want to get into politics but cancelling the Airport in Texcoco purely for political reasons was one of the most stupid things thy could've done. That was a good place for it. Zumpango is way too far away from the city and that area is also prone to floods, building the airport had a lot of setbacks because of that and then there's the whole weird shit with the military having control of the airport... It's just... Icky. A red flag. It makes my spider senses BURN OUT
I agree that the AIFA has a lot of short comings, but I don't understand why you think building in Texcoco was a good idea. You say that Zumpango is prone to flooding, but Texcoco which was/is a lake isn't? That airport would've spend so much time underwater and the costs in maintenance would've been massive.
@@davidnavarro6582 there’s such a thing as drainage systems. The president’s fans were quick to accept that BS excuse but any engineer knows there’s ways to deal with flooding.
@@VictorDeveze obviously, but that has it's own engineering challenges. Even if from an aviation point of view, Texcoco was the best location, from other perspectives it may have not... and aviation isn't everything.
@@davidnavarro6582 Aviation isn't everything but reality is that a new airport is badly needed. Benito Juárez airport is horrible in every sense of the word. I have never felt more stress in any other airport than I have experienced there: Last-minute gate changes, pipes bursting (over a Starbucks, no less), flooding, smell of sewer, overcrowded, etc. Doesn't Mexico City deserve a world-class airport? So what's the plan? Leave Benito Juárez to rot? The AIFA airport is useless, especially for international travelers. Why settle for mediocracy like now?
Great review and on point. I regularly fly into MEX on a 757 (freighter) and can attest that for the most part controllers are proficient and professional, but we can always expect to de given minimal separation with preceding traffic. Good news is that with the new PBN (RNAV) arrivals the traffic flow is much better and has made our lives easier. Before those, the arrival briefing used to always end with "Expect unexpected vectoring to the ILS" that we jokingly called the "Who knows arrival with a Surprise transition". However the new Felipe Angeles airport still has very little traffic as passenger airlines are reticent to partially move there and cause chaos for connecting passengers. There are no easy solutions for MEX.
I agree, the controllers there do a surprisingly good job with what they are given/dealing with. Definitely expect the unexpected tho, unlike most places I go, every time I go to MEX it is different. And if there is weather 😂🤣😂🤣
No, obviously an unfinished project can flood. Take a look at any building that only had the foundations finished. It rains and what happens? It floods. It would be beyond stupid to assume that the finished building would also flood…. Same thing here. The finished airport would have had drainage, canals, and other solutions to rain. So no, obviously not.
There are a few key points that I want to add to your excellent video, @Mentour Now! 1.- The president has as one of his main strategies to reduce expenses, he wanted to reduce salaries in 2018 causing a conflict that ended in the firing of many experienced controllers and bringing inexperience controllers while at the same time reducing the number of controllers by around 33% causing work shifts of up to 17 hours per controller. At the same time the director of Seneam assigned by the president was not liked by the personnel because he disregarded all concerns. 2.- One of the president best friends (Ing. Jose Maria Rioboo) was in the bidding war for the Texcoco airport during the past administration but was denied to participate in the bid because of lack of experience and other requirements. After failing to get the contract, he convinced the presidential candidate at that moment and current president that the texcoco airport was a terrible idea and proposed in 2015 to Lopez Obrador a plan to build what is today the felipe angeles airport. His company (Roiboo group) was the one who developed the master plan for the felipe angeles airport although the group has no expertise building airports. The group did not build the airport but were the master planners at the beginning. 3.- The President is also someone who likes to inagurate projects before they are finalized like the airport which had no water connection the day of inauguration and relied in trucks for the first weeks to bring water to the airport. There were no roads or public transportation to it either. The planning of the air space for the airports was designed against the opinions of all the other pertinent institutions. The air space is shared by 3 airports, two in Mexico city and one in Toluca. 4.- Incidents has been happening for a while but Seneam had the policy of not reporting to avoid negative media coverage of the new president. The videos of the accident was the point of not return into the media disaster as the Seneam had no control to block it. 5.- The Texcoco airport was expected to be private while the Felipe Angeles will be controlled by the military branch of the government, not an issue at the moment but is concerning nevertheless as it is unknown what reaction the military will have if the political party of the president loses the presidential elections in the future. The Secretary of defense already declared lealty to the party instead of Mexico.
Great video, but there is plenty more information covered up to international public. ATC controllers are being hired just because they are relatives of politicians eaven though they don’t understand English very well. Also, the Felipe Ángeles was inaugurated without being finished meaning it doesnt have complete plumbing and getting to the airport is like a death trap due to the frequency public transport is assaulted in the area. The airspace was also modified to integrate the new airport making the new approach to the runway pass almost at the rooftop of some skyscrapers. The new airport is a political tool that is used to hide corruption and it was done as a political promise instead of actual good reasons. Being an airplane lover and a mexican this saddens me a lot.
Also there is very little to be done because the politicians that are responsible simply don’t listen to the complaints saying that it is a plot against them. Mexico is suffering due to the negligence of the ones in power.
@@JulioSSierraCamarena I recommend if you speak spanish or try the subtitles on a series of interviews to Maria Larriva. She is the first female ATC controllers, and she has been probably the one who has been more vocal about the series of incidents. I think she was the one who exposed this problem with unqualified workers and it is really interesting to hear the point of view from inside out. This interviews also exposes a plethora of other problems like the airspace redesign in Mexico City.
Greetings from Mexico. You were very diplomatic explaining the situation. The issue is more political. The new MEX airport at Texcoco was being built big, not only to help reduce the present congestion but to become an important hub. The new president, an unsophisticated and uneducated populist man, without consultation and disregarding any advice cancelled all contracts (that he had to pay anyway). He decided to cancel MEX anyway in order to build his new airport AIFA in an already discarded location and to ruin the previous investors (his political enemies) in favor of his military supporters to run the newer AIFA airport. He created the current chaos because the two airports cannot operate simultaneously. He forced some minor airlines to move to the new AIFA airport that only has 14 gates but only 2 flight a day. It is not certified yet... and we doubt if it will ever be. Passengers do not like the location, there is no road or mass transportation to it and there is no interconnectivity between them. Legacy airlines do not like it either for many reasons, first lack of proper certification. The president has ordered his new MEX airport director appointee to slow down and degrade MEX airport services with no maintenance, no improvements in order to force airlines and public to use his new airport. The pilots and air traffic controllers unions are revolting as well. The traveling public is awaiting the 2024 election hoping the current party in power is defeated to change things back to the way there were planned in 2018 and restart the new MEX airport as previously planned. Mexico is living dark moments with this ignorant and corrupt man as president. We can only hope it will change in July 2024. I like your very good videos. My Dad was one of the first airmen of Mexico in the 1920s.
Great comment. It's a shame that these people got into power. Hopefully, after many thousands of million pesos, we'll be able to restore things to how they were when AMLO leaves.
Anyone want to bet that by the time they're done putting in the transport stuff mentioned, converting the old airbase into a new airport, and doing needed upgrades at the old airport that it's going to be more expensive than finishing the big fancy new one would have been?
I bet you cannot spell "Norman Foster", much less explain his worst 3 mistakes in architecture Reaearch "Harmon Hotel". It will save you countless shame and you'll thank me the rest of your life PS: Just kidding, we all know you're incapable of all that
The big fancy new one is eventually gonna be constructed, this current president only has 2 yrs left in his presidency and he can’t and won’t be allowed to stay in power.
Not only that, but by cancelling the airport the president basically made Mexico’s economy take a hit of uncertainty. Many outside investors are now hesitant to invest in the country, as he’s done the same thing with other sectors, like the energy industry. It’s not just having a whole airport thrown away, but a complete disregard of pragmatism in favor of politics and demagoguery.
Hey Mentour Pilot thank you for this video! I am a private pilot from Mexico City. here is a bit more insight on the topic: 1: The whole aviation community is pissed off about the cancellation of the Texcoco Airport, this new one is extremely mediocre, it looks like one of the airports in our other states (Toluca, Cuernavaca, Queretaro), even the "old one" (MMMX) looks better and that is saying a lot, given that the Texcoco Airport was going to be an architectural/aeronautical marvel. 2: It would be great to hear your thoughts on this whole other issue with the new airport (Felipe Angeles). The general consensus of the aviation professionals is that it was built in a crappy location to begin with. The approaches are considered dangerous or unstable and it's messing with the approaches/departures that were already established in MMMX (pilots have been improvising holding patterns for example, just going on 360s cause the established patterns no longer work). this is also part of the reason why all the incidents in MMMX are happening. 2.5 (lol): for those reasons international airlines don't even wanna touch this airport, and our president managed to make a deal with Venezuela (double lol) to open up a route just so he can call this airport "international". Again I'm a private pilot so my understanding is limited but I've seen the Air Traffic Control authorities go on national television to explain why this new airport is messing so much with the old one, how they rushed to finish it and get it "working", and how it was impossible that they were going to deliver with their promise of having the airport "fully operational at full capacity" by the time it opened. As you see in the comments of this video, it only has 6 flights a day. The point here being: Is this new airport really going to be a solution, and do we really even want to move all our air traffic there?
The infamous CHAIFA or NLU airport is a huge PANS OPS disaster, besides its runways being built facing a very large mountain range which will limit forever its use by heavy loaded aircraft. MSA is so high that we pilots have been warned by our airlines to “use good judgment and visual aides” in case of engine failure. According to inside people in SENEAM and AFAC, both airports cannot be used simultaneously in rush hours, or whenever storms are present. That means almost always…….
About the Texcoco Airport, another thing I want to bring up is why the hell would you commit to a project, only to cancel it halfway through? All that you've done is left a great big scar in the land with no practical use that'll take years to be fully reclaimed by nature, if that ever happens. Seems to me like a massive Sisyphean effort unless I'm missing something.
@@nerd2814 Let me explain, the reality is that this current Mexican Prez is a populist, very ignorant and he's mentally sick. He doesn't like change, dislikes ALL past politicians and his aim is to discredit them even it means doing stupid things. This is the perfect example, the NAIM (New airport in Texcoco) was at 35% completion when he took power. It was on budget, on time and the airport consortium had 88% of the necessary budget to complete the project. Only 12% was missing something that was quite easy for the federal government to give but this prez said NO because the project was too expensive for the country and there was a lot corruption in the project. 1) Most of the money had already been gathered by placing bonds in wall street, these bonds were guarantee to be paid by the future taxes collected at the airports (So his excuse was false because most of this money came from wall street investors not the federal gov as he clamed. He lied) 2) 2 years later after the cancellation of the airport in Texcoco his own attorney general confessed that NO corruption was found within the project (So another his lies came crashing down) This decision has had many negative results but the most important ones are: 1) Mexico's credibility as a stable government and a secure place to invest has been tarnished by Lopez-Obrador's actions. Many investors national and foreign had decided to invest somewhere else. 2) The cancellation of new airport in Texcoco has cost the country a lot. The final price tag to complete the project was around USD $16-17 billions. But since only 33% was built, They had to return the investment to the bond holders with interest as this is a standard procedure, they just returned part of the money with 20% interest, but there is a huge part that hasn't been paid for, this part was used to pay for the 33% construction and the cancellation fees that came as a result of cancelling construction contracts, other contracts, equipment and material supplies contracts. Then there is the new AIFA airport at the military base, well this was supposed to be USD $3.5 billions but they have spent 5 billions already and it hasn't been finished. it's still under construction but as far as Lopez is concerned it's been inaugurated ("completed"). The final price tag for what is left of the New airport in Texcoco is construction + cancellation fees + waste equipment and material = around 17.5 billion + the final tag for the airport at the military base is around 6 billions when they finish only part one so the mess that this guy caused Mexico is round 23.5 billions. For this money Mexico has not airport to meet the current and future demand, this idea of having 2 airports with only one way to come in is just plain stupid. Wouldn't it have been easier to let the 17 billion New airport at Texcoco to be completed? What was wrong with having a super hud airport with a capacity of 120 million passengers + millions of tons in cargo for 17 billions when you spent 23.5 billions and have nothing. This is Lopez-Obrador and like this project there are at least 4 big other projects that are just a waste of money.
@@nerd2814 It has to do with politics in México. The current president, Andres Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), ran as a candidate at least 2 times before winning in 2018 (2006 and 2012), when two other political parties where in power (PAN and PRI respectively). His whole political agenda is speaking against these 2 parties and the corruption that reigned in the country under both of these parties, and how he will "eradicate" the corruption from México (spoiler alert, he turned out to be the same or worse than the ones before him, but that's another subject). As the new México City airport was planned, designed and built under the previous governments, he claimed that the whole thing was drowning in corruption (but he never provided any proof, nor was anyone even investigated let alone arested), so whe ordered a referendum to "let the people decide if the Texcoco airport was the right choice". The referendum was a big fraud: It wasn't organized by the electoral authority in México, the ballots weren't even numbered and there was no control over who voted and who didn't, so naturally they cancelled the new airport in Texcoco and they started to build Santa Lucía. Now, there's a whole lot of problems with that: Texcoco was supposed to be financed from the airport usage fee in the current airport, however, the penalties that the Mexican government had to pay for the cancellation are now public debt and every mexican will have to pay for it; moreover, AMLO has been criticized for giving the military more and more power and responsabilities within the country, and as Santa Lucía is a military airport, it's the military who are in charge of building it, assigning the contracts for building it and managing it once it's finished (the problem being that the data from contracts and how much it costs has been reserved for 5 years under the pretext of national security after a journalist uncovered overprized purchases and corruption). All in all it was a stupid decision based on resentment, lies and manipulation that cost México 1% of the GDP that year, and a mistake that the country will be paying for many decades, given the potential for Texcoco to be a hub and a gateway to South America from Europe and Asia
the only thing I don't agree is that an airport doesn't need to be luxurious, pretty or an "architectural marvel", especially for a poorer country like Mexico. I'm. more of a function over form kind of person.
Mexican here, honestly, watching all the news about the Felipe Ángeles was like watching a Looney Toons show, at one point they tried to make an airport right in front of a mountain and everyone was making fun out of that, and honestly, had not been for this video, I would have never knew about all the accidents at the airport! My family watches the news every night and I don't remember any of the incidents you mentioned. Also, no one is really using the FA airport, we memed that it looked like a subway station called El Rosario more than an actual airport and that was it, I don't thinks there's a lot of people using it, but then again, I could be wrong about that.
You should do a review on Tan Son Nhat International Airport (SGN-Vietnam). A airport in the middle of an metropolis, overcrowded airspace, little room to expand and has to accommodate growing number of travelers. It's a nightmare to fly there, especially in the summer months and public holidays
Also the MMMX airspace was redesigned, resulting in more hours flown by planes and delays, there is a new south inbound route but tends to have bad weather.
This was a fascinating, informative production. I am always in awe of how well, Peter, you explain aviation in a way that we novices can easily understand. -Gee Boggs, Sonoma, CA USA
The cancellation of the old airport was a disaster, for anyone who has lived in Mexico City they know the “new” airport is too far not just in distance but in traffic time which could take 2-3 hours depending on your location. This has caused the new airport to be dumped by every international airline and local airlines where forced to fly there to save the government’s face
You know Mexico is bigger than Mexico City, right? And this actually arises further issues, being te lack of proper transportation around Mexico City, mainly Estado de México. There is actually a train line being built to connect the airport to the city. Leaving it's construction in charge of the Estado de México, was a mistake by the federal government, they can't even finish the one to Toluca.
The airport was built far from the main city because the city will continue growing. It’s not very smart to build an airport inside the city limits when they city is a mega metropolis. In a few years the airport will be surrounded with suburbs.
It seems crazy to me that the biggest city in the world only had one airport, and now still only has two. Here in the UK I think we still need another purpose-built airport in London and there are five airports that already serve the capital.
That's isn't easy, Mexico City it's surrounded by mountain ranges, which limits the approach routes, that is why it was intended to make a mega airport, not the Frankenstein that there is now.
I 100% agree with your evaluation of the present situation, of course I do. The one thing that would frighten me to death is the thought of another kind of accident you have done a video on, the Tenerife diasaster. It's fantastic the industry is picking up after a terrible two years almost. lets hope for everyones sake, the industry can get to grips with the new surge in travel as quickly and more importantly, as safely as possible. Another great, informative video Captain Petter, I thoroughly each one you do on all your channels and it makes my day when my notification bell tells me you have posted.
Thank you so much for creating this channel! I’ll admit, I was on the fence about this when you first announced it but it has easily turned into one of my favourite channels and one of my favourite ways to get information and interesting stories about aviation that I would not hear about other wise.
I remember flying into MEX as a passenger on a number of times back in 2012 to 2015, and it's layout always seemed very tight and cramped for aircraft movements. I always imagined there could be problems with too much air traffic congestion. I will be avoiding it until they sort things out.
It is a very old airport. While the old Terminal 1 was state of the art in the 50s and 60s, it became too small after the 70s airline expansion. Both Mexicana and Aeromexico went to have a combined fleet of 120 aircraft in the mid 80s and even Mexican would become the largest Boeing 727 operator in the world, outside the US, with more than 54 aircraft. Terminal 2 was just an add on in order to increase available gates but it has become too crowded and its alley design is a disaster for connecting passengers or air traffic rush hours. I have been held more than 30 minutes for a pushback clearance.
Thank you for talking about how more AT controllers with a reasonable workload is necessary for safety. Politicians and beancounters tend to ignore those vital people. ps- Petter, your Mexican pronunciations are beautiful!
seems to me like they need three traffic control centers, linked by high speed data communication: an approach control center, and then a ground traffic and air traffic center for each airport - essentially treating them like one airport with two sets of runways.
Peter, the AIFA airport is 2:30 to 3 hours away from Mexico City, nobody wants to go there. There are no cabs, transportation the the City at night. So, it is unlikely it will help
The problem with Texcoco's project is the soil composition that prevented the landing tracks from being completed. Ground was brought from nearby locations and attempted to compact the ground time and again but the desired compactation was never achieved.
You forgot to mention how the arrival route has changed. Airplanes coming from north meet airplanes coming from south straight ahead just before the final turn. The whole new design puts a lot of strain on the pilots too.
@@JorgeOrpinel "incoherent claims" Have you even seen the airspace redesign? Do you know what they're talking about? Or are you here just to defend politics?
Closing the Texcoco airport had a lot of problems: built on a dried lake, the runways had 10 meters in depth to stabilized them, these means huge amounts of concrete and investment; there are lots of large birds on the lake that’s still alive and the zone is prone to flooding, among other drawbacks.
The Texcoco benefits were more than the drawbacks. Such a big city requires an equally big airport. A two-airport system might seem less expensive. However, the high altitude, meteorological conditions and topography of the region make their simultaneous operation extremely difficult and risky. In addition to the flight security concerns, there is an important lack of connectivity for the Felipe Angeles which still lacks proper facilities for passengers and merchandise logistics. Also, the Texcoco project already contemplated what to do to minimize its environmental impact. The lake has been dead for decades, only getting partially flooded during the rain season. Naturally, birds will arrive to any water body, but many of them are invasive species. The terminal would act as a huge rain collecting system connected to a water cleansing plant nearby, trees and animal species were being relocated to nearby lakes which were also being rehabilitated as part of the project. Those lakes would be part the draining system of the zone. Of course, as any other airport, it would have relied on birds of pray, drones and other mechanisms to scare away birds and force native and migratory birds to stay at the nearby rehabilitated lakes.
In November 2021, my flight to Mexico City was delayed for nearly 2 hours because of "excessive traffic" over Benito Juarez airport. Obviously, they were already overwhelmed.
That has been happening since the past year, I take the Cancún to Mexico City route alot which is the busiest route in the country and since the past year the flights have been always delayed not only in Mexico City but from Cancún Airport as well.
@@kkfoto actually yes but in the past year it has been delay after delay when in the past it wasn't like that, yes there have been some delays from time to time but were rare and now its very common and not little delays, delays of at least 2 hours. Take into account that Cancún International Airport its the best airport in Mexico in terms of infrastructure.
I went thru (as passenger) Mexico City airport at the end of 2017. I was surprised at how high it was, and it was pretty cold too, maybe just a few degrees C above zero. Some of the buildings are not completely sealed. The biggest thing was the large area where people would line up. Probably 1000 people in the queue, about 45 mind to get thru that. It is too bad that politicians over turn the previous leader's projects. Once started it seems to make most sense just to finish the project. Now they wasted a bunch of money and time, and likely will still have to do a proper new airport anyways.
I'm usually not a big fan of throwing good money after bad, but one giant, partially-built airport over budget sure seems a whole lot better than two sub-par, unsafe airport sharing airspace.
@Kent Slocum So, if the person building your house was not only overcharging you but also spitting in your face, and also building it over mud, and making additional business at your expenses, you would just take the spit because you already invested some money? Sorry if I seem harsh but that's how I see it.
@@davidnavarro6582 A lot of the city is built over dried up lakes and floods are not rare, in your logic none of the homes should have been built in the first place. With a proper drainage system any issues with Texcoco would be moot.
@@mexcore14 @Alberto Oviedo no, they shouldn't have been built, but they were. And yes a proper pumps system could prevent flooding, but it would be too impractical and expensive, and wouldn't fix the uneven sinking.
@@davidnavarro6582 What did the government do? Took the spitting to the face pay for it to be biolt over mud, make additional expenses and then make even more additional expenses to make a sub-par airport, horrible decision.
This is an issue I’ve been noticing- more and more airports, having been initially built outside of the metropolitan areas, are now getting crowded with industrial and even residential construction, and it’s gonna cause issues in the future.
Yeah just look at London. They already have like 4 airports and yet there's still talks of somehow expanding Heathrow lol I know it's basically impossible but going forward cities should make the areas around main airports off limits through zoning. Have blueprints for additional runways in the event they're needed and have that land set aside.
@@Panfilo2 yup. It’s like Salt Lake City. They built that airport where they “thought” would be well away from town, and now it’s a clusterf*** of businesses and everything else around there. If they ever needed to expand, they’d have to do some serious work
Lol you just realized something that’s been obvious since the 1980s. This is why the US has very few large state of the art suburban airports and has many small old airports near city limits that are constrained by build up.
I'm pretty impressed by the nuanced context and the far, broad view you took into highlighting all the most-likely culprits behind those airport incidents, while also being thoughtful and understanding of the ATC personal labor situation and struggles, at the moment. Moreover, I really didn't expected you to be capable of honestly discussing the Texcoco airport project in any depth, but you did so in such an unbiased and fair manner, politically and professionally, that I had to praise your work.
Ironically after cancelation fees México payed double the original Texcoco cost. Thanks for sharing this with your platform, it's a big problem for us users.
You are lying, the cost of the new airport happens to be much lower than the cost of the Texcoco airport. Not to mention the maintainance cost that would be required since it was going to destroy the environment and will be sinking constantly.
@@Marusanchez100 Do you think stopping a mega project of that size is free? There were a lot of private investors and companies on that project, the cancelation fees and reimbursements bloated the cost at an astronomical level, for absolutely nothing...
@@natsirtboy said "maybe if you'd be better informed" Maybe if you'd be basically honest, you'd provide support for your claims I'll provide support for the claim YOU'RE LYING From El Financiero: "NAIM tiene un retraso de 2 años; operará en 2022 ... Otras desventajas, explicó, serían el mayor costo, ya que ha pasado de 169 mil millones de pesos, en 2014, a 300 mil millones, además de los altos costos de mantenimiento no precisados e impactos ambientales" How much does it cost TWO YEARS of delay? How much does it costs to keep dry a sinking airport?
@@mexcore14 said "for absolutely nothing" Research "Harmon Hotel" and say again "for absolutely nothing" without even blinking I know you can do it asleep, it's just a proof of concept
This looks very much to me like one of those situations where an incoming government facing economic problems took a look at the short-term upfront costs of the replacement airport and cancelled it - then they looked for a cheaper option (in the short-term) and took it without drilling down into the consequent long-term costs (extra ATC complexity, needing to hire more controllers etc.). This is one of those scenarios where it's a bad idea for governments and public sector bureaucracies to follow private-sector practices (specifically making far-reaching infrastructure decisions based on short-term costs). By focusing on the short-term, they may have got themselves a secondary airport that solved the basic capacity issue, but they've also saddled themselves with a serious infrastructure issue and ongoing long-term costs indefinitely.
An additional problem this decision saved up for the future is evident at 10:35, namely if your city is going to have two major airports serving as transportation hubs, you're going to eventually need to provide some form of rapid transit between the two of them to manage situations whereby passengers arriving at one airport have a connecting flight at the other if you don't want to have the same problems as, say, New York. That's going to become another major and ongoing expense.
It's not just the new government facing economic problems, but the economic problems the previous regime left for it to deal with. The Texcoco airport was a pool of corruption and an enviromental disaster. It had already exceeded the budget over and over and over costs were not just being paid but also owed, not even being near complition nor even halfway there (they just rose some structures so it looked like it was under construction). The soil was the least optimal to build an airport. Long story short, it was an airport never to be finished from the begining and if it ever did get finished, just the constant soil bombing, runway and structure maintnance would be expensive af. All of this was once thought as a good idea in a country that has most of it people struggling due to fundamental needs like health and food, education, jobs and security. So it was really needed to stop throwing the money away. That's why the new government decided to cancel that project wich would only benefit the private sector, get the army to build (an run) a new civil airport in an already existing military base site. And yes, costs rose a bit due to steel and concrete prices going up during the pandemic but nothing compared to the Texcoco's prices rising for the private companies' sake only... over and over... anytime they felt like it. And in record time the AIFA was designed, financed and built. It's now just waiting for the road connections to be finished and the metro that goes from it to downtown CDMX to start working at it's fullest. Texcoco's airport lies now under the waters of that 'dried lake bed' it was being constructed on and now the world's biggest recreational park is being built there... using the actual lake.
It is always politicians who take the short term approach, the one that keeps them in power and satisfies their base whether that is big spending or tax cuts. Private businesses are always looking at long term and keeping costs low and remaining profitable because if they don't they could go out of business. The government never has that problem.
@@cesarspencemarin7598 It still speaks to the myopic actions of the current administration. Rather than address the issues you brought up, the decision was made to cancel the project. It is the classic definition of cutting off your nose to spite your face. Oh, might I add that the decision was put up to vote... much like brexit. The entire affair reeks and the solutions were politically expedient but practically disastrous. No wonder they call Obrador El Cacas, everything he touches turns to poop.
12:28 Your critique and suggestions as someone who has his hand on the pulse of the industry is what we (the viewers) flock to MentourPilot and Mentour Now for. . There were some naysayers who questioned as to why Petter and team were 'diluting' a highly successful channel by opening a new one. But in my mind indeed Petter sir👨🏻✈️... I loved it from the get go.. that now while the documentaries making teams are still at work with the research and presentation... ... another team and you yourselves can also be a little informal and spontaneous with current events. While also catering to the shorter format but just as engaging content. . Hats off to the whole team👌🏽🤍 as always.
I fly in and out of Mexico City three or four times a year. I've never been a nervous flyer, but I think I'll have another couple of drinks before landing at Benito Juarez from now on.
Unfortunately, the cancellation of the Texcoco Airport, as beneficial as it could have been, was purely a political move that ruined the possibility of Mexico City having a state-of-the-art airport. Even us Mexicans now how dumb of a decision it was, but the current political situation is affecting every corner of this nation. As always, a great video with excellent information!
The cancellation was never beneficial, Texcoco lake have been dry for decades, the Texcoco project also was going to help to collect a lot of water for Mexico City area.
This is a big lie, the Texcoco airport was a big scam, it was obstructed by two hills and that information was never published. The Chiconautla and the Chimalhuacán, violating ICAO Annex 14 and FAA regulations. we were lucky that doubt canceled, it would have caused a lot of problems in the future.
That incredible airport was cancelled just on political basis, without any other single reason than the current president seeing its cancellation as a triumph mock to the previous president, from a different party. He rushed the construcción of that horrible secondary airport without any regard for the design of the airspace and now thousands could be in risk of being in an incident all because political warfare. Thank you for covering this. I’m a huge fan :)
@@markmunoz3951 that airport had bunch hydraulic systems to prevent that plus, they were going to build water recharge zones etc they had huge and well planned hydraulic design to help with Mexico City water problems even
@@markmunoz3951 actually mexico deserved that kinda airport over 30 Million people living in the potential service area , central de abastos mexico most important food distribuition market etc and it was going to be really close to it
@ 7:14 - Recipe for disaster. In the church I attend as a Sound Technician, a new temple is being built, and a new Sound System is to be one of the features. Our team was told that, since this will happen, we don´t need much new material now, since we´re expected to move in one year. Problem is, we have immediate needs (including substituting few essential cables), that are not being met for two years straight, and mounting failures during the services have led me to stop collaborating within the team. Take from Peter to pay Paul not good politics I reckon.
Great explanation Peter! Awesome as usual. Mex is my least favorite airport of all time. Been there well over 100 times and it never ceases to amaze me how screwed up that place is.
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Reminded me of back in the 2000’s, I was getting vectors around to land on 28 at MYNN. The were switching runways and approach had us all the around the south end of the island. As I switched to tower turning about a six mile final (Nm) I heard the tower drag an old G4 out to “line up and wait” on 28. We fully configured and went to Vref+5 way out. The G4 call ready two times as I recall and the tower gave him a “stand by”. That voice sounded awfully familiar in the G4 when captain came on and said “don’t hit me”. The tower was a little be busy with someone’s directions on a taxiway as I recall when on a one mile final I ask the tower of his intentions. The tower never responded till we reported the GA. Though I will not admit to giving my brother in law a haircut, I kept it at least a couple hundred ft and off set slightly. The Tower finally got off his fixation and gave us a head and altitude back to the south East. It almost happened again at WSSL between my brother in-law. Again my bro knew it was my plane before I knew it was his 550 on the runway ahead. He just said “here we go again” on the other side of this ball. What are the odds? Anyway, heads up in the third world. We go months in a row landing at new airports (new to us) and you have to stay on your “toes”. :-D I was flying a lot in Mexico seemed in the nineties and there was always something to see there that you would not in the US or Europe. (Sorry I’m bored in a hotel room)
Even an initial build of one new runway and a small facility at the new location would relieve some air traffic issues, and likely pay for the rest of the build. So odd that they're not following through.
The president and his cohorts aren't quite interested in finishing the project once the inauguration is done, they rushed it and now they don't care. Because ad it turns out, the infrastructure needed for that airport (highways and stuff) are going to be even more expensive stuff han the Texcoco airport was going to be.
@@SeekerNami yeah... They decided to build an airport without taking into account issues like accessibility, plumbing, costs. It was more of a project to grab money than anything (big surprise in México)
Mexico City international Airport is just too small for the traffic it handles. Recently a new state of the art Airport was built just a few miles north of the city but there's barely any transportation or connectivity between airports and to make matters worst ubers are not allow to operate around the new Airport!!! How will passengers get to or from this airport? most airlines refused to operate from this new airport for that reason. The old decaying airport just a few miles from downtown is just more convenient for most passengers though is a headache
Regarding the proposal to build a new airport on a lake bed - I would have done due diligence and found out what the maximum height of the water level would be, then raise the airport extra higher in order to prevent unwanted flooding. Because water loves to get in everywhere. And Fukushima.
First of all, I want to thank you for the effort you have taken to pronounce such difficult very ancient Mexican words. Even for foreign Spanish speakers, those words are quite difficult to say. As a Mexican myself it means a lot. Also, I think you nailed all the issues circumventing the MMMX problems and the aviation crisis we’re facing. Politics in my country is such a sad and conflicting subject.
and while we are here the authorities thought lets make things more fun for ATC and pilots. The two airports are just 42km apart with runway numbers nearly identical (MEX : 5/23, NLU : 4/22). Petter you confirm with these conditions there is always a risk of intercepting a wrong localizer from another airport right? This happens frequently in US with nearby airports. Also I am wondering why don't they make the bigger airport of the two, the international one and the smaller one only for domestic flights? again Petter let me know what you think. Great video as always thank you
Actually, that is the idea, the old airport will take the international traffic and the new one the local. The problem is that there is no speedway between them and easily it can take you a few hours to move from one to the other, so your connections will be at risk.
@@eLocolucas CDMX friends told me that one hour 15 minutes is the ideal time in a private car, but that for a trip I was planning I should think of a 2 hour trip.
People also need to know that the "new" Felipe Angeles International Airport is useless, it only has 4 daily local flights, combined with the fact that it's FAR so far from Mexico City and it has no real connection with the city besides two small highways. So the Felipe Angeles Airport only complicated the Mexico City airspace without helping with the air traffic.
Do you own a map. Felip Angeles is in Mexico City, not far from it. We need to stop thinking like tourists, yes it's far from the Zocolo but near 6 MILLION people. As for your comment on 4 daily local flights, it's patently false. Just go to Google flights and put in NLU and leave the the destination open. I chose September 8th just two weeks out and there's quite a lot. All of the Mexican airlines are running flights out of NLU now. You can still pretend there's only 4 if you'd like, it will mean there's more room for the rest of us.
They are only 5 flights scheduled for today. Also, it is far from the city. Obviously, it is close to population areas surrounding the city, but it is nearly 50km from the actual city with little to no connections.
@@ling636 50 km from the actual city? Have you ever been to Mexico City or if you have maybe you think Roma Norte/Condesa is the actual city? The area surrounding Felipe Angeles has more people than Los Angeles California . Think about that for a moment. Those people currently have to go clear south to AICM.
@@GrantMcWilliams Lol. Ad hominem attacks? You are referring to the Metro area. While yes, it is populous it is still not the proper city. People living in Ecatepec will not claim to live in the city, they will say they are from Ecatepec, Estado de Mexico
I don't know if this is relevant but on an Aeromexico flight from Texas to CDMX a few months back I noticed that the pilots left the cockpit doors open during takeoff. I've never seen anything like that before (was a kid when 9/11 happened). I thought it was off but was also so fascinated by seeing them engage thrusters and begin rotation that I wasn't complaining. Honestly I've flown into Benito Juarez regularly on Aeromexico for the past 5 years and have had no issues personally - I didn't really know all this was going on besides the drama with the new airport. The most interesting thing about flying into Mexico City is how late the descent feels. Like you're in the clouds and next thing you know you feel only meters above buildings leading into the airport.
For the record, officially the MEX airport’s name is still “Aeropuerto Internacional de la Ciudad de México”. Back when Luis Echeverría was president he proposed to rename it to Benito Juarez, though it was never approved by the Senate nor the House of Deputies. But as usual, work for the “new” name started way before they made it official, everybody bought the re-naming. You can call it whatever you fancy, though officially it is NOT Benito Juarez, it is AICM, for short … ¡De nada !
Thank you for the explanation Mentour Pilot - very glad you clarified the matter in terms everybody can understand. Off topic, but related: I have read of the new Berlin airport which took 15+ years to complete; then the notice disappeared from the news. Could you tell what are your thoughts about it? Is it running fine? Thanks alot... Anthony
Well made video. Very informative and I’m glad others are noticing this problem. I’m from Mexico City and it’s always so stressful flying into and out of this airport. I try to take either very early or late flights into and out of this airport to avoid high peak hours. At least that’s my thinking. I may be wrong.
They should still build the additional airport, one runway, one taxiway, one building at a time. One runway and an old shed is not going to cost too much.
I flight to Mexico City, all the time. At times is chaotic. More than one time on arrival, we had to wait 20 plus minutes to get a gate. Long lines at immigration (not a big deal), and it seems that you always, have to be running and on alert, when in the terminal. The low cost airlines(Volaris and Viva Aerobus), have always full planes, and long lines on their check in areas. The relieve airport up north, Felipe Angeles, it's a good idea, but it's gonna take time, while the demand, keeps outgrowing the place.
i work for the wheelchair service in PHX (specially the international side) and mexico city flights always have 10+ wchr PAX on board with full flights.
A funny thing, i flew into Mexico City a few years ago to catch a connecting to Riviera Nayarite. So i deplaned, switched my luggage to a conveyor and was in the airport so i never crossed customs. I was probably illegally in Mexico without knowing.
Another great video! I had watched the VAS video of that near miss (wonder if that counts as a “Never Event”) but didn’t understand the background until now, thanks!
Why would you cancel a partially built airport in an excellent location which already cost $13 billions just to start a brand new one way further away from the city? This seems completely stupid to me...
Thank you for this information. Many people travel to Mexico City for all sorts of business and this is a very good explanation of the current situation.
Very good video. The complexity of the airspace required a new type of methodology to decrease the work load of ATC. They implement a close path methodology called Point merge, used in more than 30 airports around the globe. This new methodology needs to re adapt the way atc give instructions to aircraft.
Other factors that influence this accidents lay on the current government cutting the budget given to SENAM (Mexicos ATC & Airspace Agency) with the argument that they where receiving to much and that money needed to be saved. This lead to older and more experienced personal in ATC to be retired during the low demand in the pandemic, but as you mentioned in the video when the tourism got back on its feet there was an urgent need to replace this controllers, but government decided (to save money) it was better to hire younger and more inexperienced personal.
Maybe a solution for airports is to find a space for 100 years of expansion, and run high speed trains to the city centre. That way, they can build the thing correctly from the get go. Long, wide runways, with enough room between them for dual ops. And while they are at it, put the Conversation Center next to it. Solves a lot of transportation issues
I just flew to and from MEX last month and I didn't encounter any problems at all. The left runway 05 was for takeoff and 05 right was landing. Some others have mentioned it, but the terrain around the airport makes it so that arrival and departure routes are tight. The weather can be very bad in and around the city as well.
There is a huge problem with the new AIFA airport which doesn't get the attention it should be getting, and that is the actual real and practical gate capacity. The Mexican government is doing some strange math and asserts a ridiculously high number or potential gates. The reality is very different. Only half of the planned terminal was actually constructed and looking at a picture it is very easy to determine that is has only 14 points extending from the terminal itself. Now, it has always been said that each of these points would have two of the extendable boarding bridges, but it's still unclear how two average to large airplanes (not super small commuters) would co-exist in each space. So I think that even if airlines magically decided to move their operations to the new airport, it would be quickly apparent that the capacity to handle all the airplanes at the terminal isn't quite there yet. And as of now, there are no concrete plans on when the rest of the airpot terminal would even be built.
I would be interested on your input on the San Diego (SAN) airport and the problems they are having (landing etc). An "International" airport with only one runway in such a large city has become a large problem for them, and the topology of the greater San Diego area is making it difficult to find a location for a new airport. Originally, the idea was placed to use Mirmar Naval Air Station (Top Gun), but instead the Marines took that over and they are back to square one.
I'm from Mexico City, and I will never go to the Felipe Angeles, because they made it too far away from the city so transportation is expensive, that's more total travel time and more time lost. It currently runs 9 routes per day, the cancellation fo the Texcoco airport meant losing even more money, losing what was already paid for, plus all the fines and penalties for cancelling current international and local contractors, and spending more money into actually building it from the ground up. Nobody wants to fly out this damned airport that serves absolutely no purpose and did way more harm than good. But that's the result of this inadequate communist government that somehow managed to brainwash people into thinking this was a good idea.
Hello. My wife and I were on Aeromexico flight 693 on May 16th this year. Flying out of Toronto Canada, we were transiting through Mexico City to Lima and Cusco in Peru, our final destination. When we were coming in to land in Mexico City Benito Juarez, our aircraft (B737-8MAX) aborted landing and powered up for gaining altitude for a second attempt. We were told, I think, that wind was the factor. Anyway, we did land at the second attempt, but now knowing about the issues there at this airport, I am concerned that this event was actually more serious than it seemed to be! Would you happen to have some "insider information" relating to that on May 16th? Not long after the reported incident you describe in May. Thanks!
There's a lot more going on than you mentioned, the current government is as corrupt as the previous ones and the issues with traffic controllers is a lot more serious than it appears. On one side, the Felipe Angeles airport is totally operated by the army, which means that army air controllers are managing civil air traffic for which they don't have enough experience, on the other hand, the air controller team on the old airport was totally controlled by a mafia that have all their family members and friends with ZERO capacity/experience managing the air traffic, things are so bad there that some experienced air controllers were ditched and some others are literally being treated as slaves. In recent weeks the director (Víctor Hernández Sandoval) that created all this mess "resigned" but no legal action was taken against him as far as I know... And the issue still persists. Not all the blame goes to the current government, there's another issue about air traffic routes that comes from previous governments, they literally let all the airlines do as they wanted and this caused last year's redesign of the air routes over Mexico City to turn into a damn mess, not only there's been risk of collisions in the airport but also in the air in nearby states, more specifically over Morelos. After the redesign, now you have planes approaching the airport from the south AND the north at the same time, previously they only approached from the north (not quite sure if form the east too). I live near the point where both routes converge to turn to the airport and believe me, sometimes planes look too damn close at this point that I think a disaster is very probable. Sad to say, decades of corruption and the silly whims of the fool we currently have as president make me think the solution to all this issues is a lot less probable than a disaster.
The previous government was 90% corruption, yes, but they did an astounding job for planning the Texcoco airport. It was going to be highly efficient, modern, and would bring positive evolution to the whole country... But then a populist harnessed the power. The outcome: The new government is 100% corruption / 0% brains, all its projects are failing while costing double or triple of the former projects. Mexico will pay dearly for this mistake.
I have been very informed about this situation through the years because it is of personal interest and was an important national topic for over 20 years mainly because the Benito Juarez Airport is at max capacity for several years now. The place where the new airport was going to be placed it's not only a dried bed lake, it's a very important natural area that provides numerous ecological services to Mexico City, it´s also whats left of the old Lake 1.- its a regulatory vase that avoids flooding into the city 2.- it provides water by capturing rainwater (Mexico City was founded over a lake about 700 years ago) 3.- it regulates temperature for the city. The prior project was a pharaonic airport that was going to close not only the old Benito Juarez airport but also the Santa Lucia airforce base. it was becoming an endless pit of money and was taking a lot of time to be finished (the current administration finished the new Felipe Angeles Airport in about 3 years while the previous airport was into it´s 3rd year of construction with less than 20% built) The main reason for this is that that particular Texcoco lakebed area sinks at a higher rate that the rest of the city when you try to build something over it. For just the runways they would have to be filling it constantly because the runways would keep sinking making the maintenance a nightmare and also a money pit. Why did the previous adminstration tried to build there? because they wanted to use the current airport lands to build a huge building corporative, complex... it was a huge business and corruption behind that decision. Before the cancellation of the NAIM (new airport in Texcoco) there was a referendum and the people voted to cancel the project. Back to the video. The main reason for the construction of the Felipe Angeles airport (currently active) was to lower the number of operations on the old airport and bring it down to a safe number, the problem was that the airlines were reluctant to move to the new airport because it was farther away from the city, after the incident of the nearmiss planes, the goverment stepped in and forced the airlines to move a significant number of their operations to the new airport. They are currently doing so, and they have until October to comply with their agreements between airlines and gov.
the texcoco airport it has 20 years of studies in all aspects. the corruption that you named, hasnt been proof. the problem with the santa lucia airport. they can´t coexist together. the problem of airspace saturation in mexico city will remain.
@@brunosoler tell that to the hundreds of families affected by the destruction of their ancestral habitat by mining the mountains looking for tezontle in order to fill the runways that kept sinking. They were threatened for looking for justice. We need water, and nature. No estudios a modo para que se beneficien los de siempre. $$$$$
The "solution" to the problems of the new airport the you put forth without proof, have been many times more problematic than completing the original project. The new sad excuse for an airport that is supposed to solve the problem, is not operational and will never solve the problem. Still, you are parroting the political reasons for the cancellation and are offering no proof for your assertions. You are not credible and I do not believe you.
Thanks for the upload a very interesting video indeed hopefully they will solve the problem.I really like the channel I am proud to be a member of the channel.Keep up the good work I look forward to the next video.Enjoy the rest of the weekend 😀
Felipe Ángeles is far away from Mexico City we are talking about two hours to make it just to the airport nobody wants it. Not mentioning that actually the cost of cancelling the Texcoco Airport and building Santa Lucia was higher than just finishing the original project. For us Mexicans is sadly a political thing rather than an infrastructure plan
Thanks for sharing, you should have added: The new airport is not nearly taking the overload. No one wants to go there. Mexico city is a vial chaos and those scheduled 41 minutes of travel between airports can easily translate into 4h... This does affect aviation. For the people living in the south of the country, which is the most heavily populated this is a real problem. The probability of loosing your flight by going to Felipe Angeles is way to high and no body wants to pay extra for a hotel...that is if there is any hotels over there. So the clear solution si to take my international flights from my own state even if it is slightly more expensive and use Miami as my hub. I know my country even with experienced aviators and agents I wouldn't risk it. Thanks for sharing, I dont like going to Mexico city anyways. 😌
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Theres too more besides what you covered. Here are some facts on this topic:
-The canceled airport was supposed to be built on a dried lake. The roads surrounding that place are ALWAYS in maintenance. ALL the time they have to keep filling with rocks and stuff so cars can keep going. The maintenance costs were to raise as high as the whole airport cost within only 5 years! Who were supposed to do this maintenance? ghost companies made by the former president Peña (The one who started the project). Those companies "exist" in abandoned fields, and the owners are name lenders. Please read about "La estafa maestra" in Mexico, a whole money laundering schema made by Peña's party.
-494,200 acres of land near the airport were stolen from farmers. The armed arm called "Antorcha Campesina" from the former president Peña's party were ment to have them. That group invades land all over central Mexico with Peña's party on their side and suddenly they owned all that land to build whatever they wanted in a prime spot.
-Control Tower was supposed to be built by one of Peña's favorite contractors, that company was responsible for the killing of a family in an car overpass that fell. No person from the contractor or government agent was blamed by that accident.
-250 civilians non related to the project died in 1500 car accidents involving lorries from the airport. They were payed A LOT. They were payed 5 months minimum wage for each 10 mile trip of materials coming from illegal mines. They drove like bas***** because they were payed astronomical numbers, something a professionist doesn't make a month but for each DAY. Who payed those truckers those huge numbers making no sense at all? Every tax payer.
-Illegal mines were established and authorized in a matter of days. Suddenly people were living NEXT to them, government said they only authorized a few but that was complete lie. Look for them, theres tons of info about this. People died because their homes suddenly fell trough a hole they didn't have the prior week. They caused a natural disaster everywhere, rivers were deviated, complete forests were destroyed. There were HUNDREDS of illegal miles
-You didn't mention a key fact, the actual government plan also involves an abandoned airport built a few years ago in Toluca, that airport was supposed to serve as a relief for Benito Juarez' airport, but guess what? even more corruption from Peña's party back in the day: A train was being built to connect that airport to Mexico City but it was suddenly abandoned, huge columns were put in place but it was discovered they used non standard quality materials, so they needed to dismantle EVERYTHING and build it again. Peña's party favorite contractors won HUGE numbers, since they were never held responsible for this. They were payed, they abandoned everything and went back to Spain, Peña's favorite country.
Keyword for all of this: Corruption.
I'm not saying this new government is not corrupt because that would be hilarious, but believe me, canceling that giant corruption palace was the right thing to do.
PS: It was never going to make it to 2020, 4 years of construction and only had at 20% progress.
Santa Lucía AirPort will not be the solution. Our communist president made a big mistake cancelling Texcoco airport. Santa Lucía is 3 hours away from Mexico city because of the terrible traffic and the place where it was built is really dangerous. Connections between the 2 airports are imposible. Few people are using the new airport. Is a very big failure of this administration
@@kareinoso 3 hours? get a car, it is not 3 hours away, it is only one. You might not like this piece of **** president but you are as bad as him spreading bullshit.
Plandemic
@@marvinracer88 oh mejico Guadalupe needs to return. God Bless mejico
As a Mexican aeronautical engineer, I can say that you cover most of the important points, but it goes waaay beyond since we also have the Toluca airport and the Felipe Angeles airport is situated around dangerous terrain, but I really appreciate that people outside Mexico are starting to look at this issues, we need more pressure to make things change.
Dangerous terrain?
@@stephanebidault654 mountains and hills which make landing difficult.
Since I found Toluca airport only use MEX for internacional. TLC it's empty, easy to get there by car, park for $180 a day, no queus, no delays... Just 👌.
Check the distance among LAX, Burbank , Van Nuys, Santa Monica, J. Wayne airports... AICM, Angeles and Toluca are just 3.. baloney
Is it not time to just undo Cortes' 500 year old fuck up and move the city to a place where a city should be and not a lake?
One current problem you forgot to mention is ground connectivity to new airport is not yet finished. So nobody wants to fly there. Airlines cannot operate flights to where nobody wants to go. Felipe Angeles airport is only taking 6 flights a day. I believe ponce the ground connectivity projects are completed airlines will be able to sell more tickets to this airport.
I actually had that in my script but decided to not include it as it was not aviation related. Thank you for bringing it up! 💕
@@MentourNow I would say it is aviation-related, since it strongly effects the airport experience for the passengers and thus the traffic patterns. Much like hypothetically scaling up security making it a much longer and more complicated process would be related. Great video by the way, thank you.
@@traveller23e Indeed.
this is a problem we have in Australia too. Canberra has a very nice newly refurbished/modernised terminal and upgraded facilities for ground crew and runway approach and landing, and it's located relatively close to Sydney, which is hugely overworked, causing the search for a new site more than 200+ km away to build another airport at either Goulburn or Badgery's creek.... but the reason that Canberra's lovely airport isn't really utilised by Sydney traffic is because there are no high speed transport links between Sydney and Canberra. it's incredibly frustrating and successive state and federal governments have known about this for 30+ years but still have not actioned anything. but we now have Qatar return to Canberra as part of a mini hop to Melbourne for international flights (Melbourne a much further distance to Canberra than Sydney)
@@SallyGreenaway that’s what happens when you build your capital city in the middle of bushwhack no place and fill it full of public servants 😉
It always amazes me how packed in cities grow, right up to the border of an airport... No matter where you are, it's pretty much packed.
A lot of U.K. airports are miles away from the cities they serve (east midlands and Manchester for example) because they started out as ww2 RAF bases… I’m guessing they didn’t want any bombers to fail a takeoff near civilisation… Or to provide landing strips right next to major cities if the Germans successfully landed at any of them.
They shouldn’t have been allowed to build up to the border of the airport to allow for future expansion. Other smaller airports have made people move if their home was too close to the airport.
@@leslielucci3182 Yep. Some of those homes in Mexico City are practically on the runway. I would not fancy living there.
Resident of Mexico City here, let me explain you what happened with Texcoco airport. The new president, AMLO which came into power in 2018, decided that Texcoco was full of corruption and unviable. He never showed proof of neither allegation, but still he decided to cancel it because he wanted to destroy whatever business the last administration had in Texcoco (he sees them as his enemies). So he already decided to cancel it but he didn't want to have the responsibility of all the money that was going to be lost, so he made a "referendum" for the people to supposedly decide by themselves. The thing is this "referendum" was full of irregularities, for example all the voting booths were setup exclusively where his supporters lived, so naturally the referendum's result was to cancel it. He never cared if the aiport was adequate or anything, it was just a political vendetta for him, meanwhile all of us tax payers and people who use airports will pay for the cancellation costs for a long time.
You see the thing is that AMLO has many supporters in Mexico, or more properly: fanatics. Imagine the most staunch, hardcore and die-hard supporters of Trump in the USA, the ones who will hear no reason or argument, well same thing with AMLO supporters, whatever the president says it's like god himself has spoken. So if he says AIFA (the aiport he built as an option to Texcoco) is a better alternative to Texcoco then that's it, there is no more discussion. The thing is the AIFA has already opened a couple of months ago and right now it's kind of laughing stock, nobody uses it, people still book their flights exclusively in AICM (the old airport in the middle of the city). He is doing all that he can to force people to use AIFA, he is trying to make AICM more expensive, he is trying to coerce airlines into using the new aiport, among many other tactics. And still people won't use it, why? Because it's over 2 hours to get there, while the old aiport is 15 minutes to 1 hour depending on where you live in the city (Texcoco was also pretty close, not 2 hours away). He is also spending mountains of money to make it more accesible, he is extending railway, making new roads, etc. etc. so the real costs for AIFA have already been much higher than he projected/promised.
It will be some time until we see if it's a complete failure, but right now things are not looking good and we are still stuck with the old (unsafe) airport. There was absolutely no problem with Texcoco, many international organizations agreed that it was technicaly feasable and a good option, yet AMLO convinced millions it wasn't just to have his way.
lol bringing “trump” into this gotta love it
I hope they resolve this before the 2026 World Cup if Mexico City is designated as one of the locations to host. I can only imagine how much additional traffic there's going to be
True, I didn’t even mention that.
Yeah Mexico City is one of the 3 Mexican cities selected for hosting games during the 2026 world cup so will definitely increase the traffic.
@@FarikoUnited1 Right? You have to include Estadio Azteca during WC 2026
The only 3 games MX city is going to host? Not an issue xD
Sounds like a mess in the future 😱
Hey there Petter, absolutely fantastic video as always. Just some things you might want to know, first, the cancellation of Texcoco was because the new government said it was built with “corruption” event though there was not enough evidence to claim that. Mexico has been suffering from corruption for several years now, but the airport project was never founded to be in some kind of corrupted deal. The ironic part is that the Felipe Angeles airport was built by the army, and the highest ranks have actually been founded to be corrupt and have several lawsuits. Also, the government that was building Texcoco was found to be corrupt too, but they haven’t found any evidence of corruption on the airport so far. On second place, the problem with the airspace is really complex, the city is surrounded by mountains on three sides, south, east and west, so the only avaible place for the planes to arrive is from the north. The problem is that Felipe Angeles departures and arrivals cross with the arrivals from Benito Juárez Airport, this caused for a redesign of the airspace back in may- June last year, and thats when all the incidents began to happen. So far ATC unions and pilots unions have reported 43 incidents in the span of a year, while the government claim to have only one report from June 2021. Third and last, after the near crash in the runway, government authorities said they were going to change some things in the airspace and how it was being managed, but after 2 months, nothing has happened or changed. The former director of the Navigation Dept. (the one who resigned) fired many of the most experienced ATC controllers in Mexico city and replaced them with his family and friends. Several controllers who were fired raised their voice and have already reached the national news. In conclusion, many things have lead to what has been happening, but overall its just poor government management and corruption.
You forgot to mention that one of the "arguments" to cancel the NAICM was that the AIFA would we a lot less expensive, which in the end was a lie because it's final cost was a lot higher. Also that it was catalogued as "national security matter" which means nobody will be able to audit it and they'll have enough time to erase the evidences of all the screwed things the army did to construct it. But they still say that they're not corrupt.
@@manuelsalazar3938 you are right my friend thanks for complementing
Agree 100%, plus, the new airport looks like a bus terminal hehe
From what I've heard, for the next couple of years, the idea is to relieve the traffic in mexico city with the help of Monterrey and Guadalajara airports, mainly to reduce the activity of aeromexico while they figure out how to solve the problem
“No enough evidence”? STFU….there was a lot of evidence of corruption there, just the politically blinded people doesn’t want to see it
Corruption is always to blame in Mexico. It doesn’t matter which party reigns, it’s always the same shit show. The USA is also going towards that route.
A big problem with the current situation in Mexico City is that most airlines will want to fly to the old airport despite the smaller capacity simply because it is more convenient for passangers. If you have a choice to arrive at an airport close to the center of the city or one where you would have to spend a decent amount of time to get to that city, most people would prefer the first option. This is something you can also see in other cities where they tried the 2 airport approach to alleviate the pressure on the old airport. Another nice example is Dubai. You can fly to DXB and be downtown in 15 minutes or you can fly to DWC, the newer airport outside the city with room for up to 6 runways in the future but you are 45 minutes away from the downtown area. DWC was once intended to replace DXB but after building the first terminals and starting operations, Dubai decided that since most airlines preferred DXB, they would attempt to expand that airport instead despite it being surrounded by the city.
Texcoco airport = literal sunk cost
😂😂
Almost like leaving a huge project abandoned, that already had systems to prevent deterioration during the construction process itself will eventually lead it to rot and crumble, like anything left abandoned.
Stupid chairo.
Also Felipe airport # white elephant haha
A key factor is Mexico’s topography, the volcanos and mountains surrounding the city in all quadrants require a very tight arrival design to accommodate a lot of traffic, now with one additional airport sharing that narrow airspace. This increases costs for airlines as well, we always carry extra fuel to mmmx expecting several delays and holdings, and lets not even mention when theres bad weather in the vicinity.
Flew to MEX in the 2000's several times. Are they still clearing for ILS at 90° from the LOC?
@@rodrigoayarza9397 lol yeah.. not much has changed in a while.
@@rodrigoayarza9397 what that means?
@@luizbruno2010 he means that its a very sharp intercept angle of 90 degrees.
@@m4nu507 cool thanks
I used to fly in and out of MEX often when I lived in Mexico. The amount of chaos back then was crazy enough, I can't even imagine the chaos now with two airports so close together. Mexico City is trying to become like New York, with its three airports jammed together. The biggest different between NYC and Mexico City, however, is that the Mexico City government is notoriously slow and corrupt in every aspect of construction and regulation. I hope they can fix this problem soon before something tragic happens.
Slow and Corrupt. Kind of defines New York City Govt too. Thankfully the airports are under the Port Authority jurisdiction and not the city.
@@prabuddhaghosh7022 As a native New Yorker, I agree with your opinion.
@ESUSAMEX so you knew that info about NYC govt not having anything to do with the case but wanted to do your contribution to information war against 4T?
@@alastorgdl You're a perfect example of why everything about the new airport isn't about solving problems, but about political pandering.
@@ajga5435 A new airport that will NOT SINK and will alleviate congestion, constructed in a fourth of time and cost, is pandering
Your love for corruption is impressive
As someone already mentioned ground connectivity to AIFA (Felipe Angeles) is poor and currently only has ONE working runway. I'm not sure what's the status of things like ground radar and such but AIFA has several issues.
I live less than an hour away from where AIFA is located and yet due to the poor conditions of the roads AND how small they are for the traffic they hold, the trip can take up to two hours. It's nowhere near enough for the communities around them, let alone to hold the traffic of an airport back and forth.
The AIFA is also already showing signs of wear and tear despite barely being in function, it's not a bad airport and I'm sure it could hold as much traffic as CDMX but it's not yet where it needs to be, and the huge amount of infrastructure that's needed cannot be reliably built in three years or less than a year. Hell most of these roads barely even hold up 10 months before the next rain season completely obliterates them. They always use very poor quality materials.
I don't even want to get into politics but cancelling the Airport in Texcoco purely for political reasons was one of the most stupid things thy could've done. That was a good place for it.
Zumpango is way too far away from the city and that area is also prone to floods, building the airport had a lot of setbacks because of that and then there's the whole weird shit with the military having control of the airport... It's just... Icky. A red flag. It makes my spider senses BURN OUT
I agree that the AIFA has a lot of short comings, but I don't understand why you think building in Texcoco was a good idea. You say that Zumpango is prone to flooding, but Texcoco which was/is a lake isn't? That airport would've spend so much time underwater and the costs in maintenance would've been massive.
@@davidnavarro6582 there’s such a thing as drainage systems. The president’s fans were quick to accept that BS excuse but any engineer knows there’s ways to deal with flooding.
@@VictorDeveze obviously, but that has it's own engineering challenges. Even if from an aviation point of view, Texcoco was the best location, from other perspectives it may have not... and aviation isn't everything.
@@VictorDeveze so by your logic the flooding in Texcoco could have been solved by engieniering, but the one in Zumpango can't. Interesting logic 🤔
@@davidnavarro6582 Aviation isn't everything but reality is that a new airport is badly needed. Benito Juárez airport is horrible in every sense of the word. I have never felt more stress in any other airport than I have experienced there: Last-minute gate changes, pipes bursting (over a Starbucks, no less), flooding, smell of sewer, overcrowded, etc. Doesn't Mexico City deserve a world-class airport? So what's the plan? Leave Benito Juárez to rot? The AIFA airport is useless, especially for international travelers. Why settle for mediocracy like now?
Great review and on point. I regularly fly into MEX on a 757 (freighter) and can attest that for the most part controllers are proficient and professional, but we can always expect to de given minimal separation with preceding traffic. Good news is that with the new PBN (RNAV) arrivals the traffic flow is much better and has made our lives easier. Before those, the arrival briefing used to always end with "Expect unexpected vectoring to the ILS" that we jokingly called the "Who knows arrival with a Surprise transition". However the new Felipe Angeles airport still has very little traffic as passenger airlines are reticent to partially move there and cause chaos for connecting passengers. There are no easy solutions for MEX.
I agree, the controllers there do a surprisingly good job with what they are given/dealing with.
Definitely expect the unexpected tho, unlike most places I go, every time I go to MEX it is different.
And if there is weather 😂🤣😂🤣
Well, if the building site got flooded, because it's a lake bed, isn't that a really strong argument for not building there in the first place?
@@samueldavila2156 Well, that couldn't have been politically motivated at all, could it?
No, obviously an unfinished project can flood. Take a look at any building that only had the foundations finished. It rains and what happens? It floods. It would be beyond stupid to assume that the finished building would also flood…. Same thing here. The finished airport would have had drainage, canals, and other solutions to rain. So no, obviously not.
There are a few key points that I want to add to your excellent video, @Mentour Now!
1.- The president has as one of his main strategies to reduce expenses, he wanted to reduce salaries in 2018 causing a conflict that ended in the firing of many experienced controllers and bringing inexperience controllers while at the same time reducing the number of controllers by around 33% causing work shifts of up to 17 hours per controller. At the same time the director of Seneam assigned by the president was not liked by the personnel because he disregarded all concerns.
2.- One of the president best friends (Ing. Jose Maria Rioboo) was in the bidding war for the Texcoco airport during the past administration but was denied to participate in the bid because of lack of experience and other requirements. After failing to get the contract, he convinced the presidential candidate at that moment and current president that the texcoco airport was a terrible idea and proposed in 2015 to Lopez Obrador a plan to build what is today the felipe angeles airport. His company (Roiboo group) was the one who developed the master plan for the felipe angeles airport although the group has no expertise building airports. The group did not build the airport but were the master planners at the beginning.
3.- The President is also someone who likes to inagurate projects before they are finalized like the airport which had no water connection the day of inauguration and relied in trucks for the first weeks to bring water to the airport. There were no roads or public transportation to it either. The planning of the air space for the airports was designed against the opinions of all the other pertinent institutions. The air space is shared by 3 airports, two in Mexico city and one in Toluca.
4.- Incidents has been happening for a while but Seneam had the policy of not reporting to avoid negative media coverage of the new president. The videos of the accident was the point of not return into the media disaster as the Seneam had no control to block it.
5.- The Texcoco airport was expected to be private while the Felipe Angeles will be controlled by the military branch of the government, not an issue at the moment but is concerning nevertheless as it is unknown what reaction the military will have if the political party of the president loses the presidential elections in the future. The Secretary of defense already declared lealty to the party instead of Mexico.
Great video, but there is plenty more information covered up to international public. ATC controllers are being hired just because they are relatives of politicians eaven though they don’t understand English very well. Also, the Felipe Ángeles was inaugurated without being finished meaning it doesnt have complete plumbing and getting to the airport is like a death trap due to the frequency public transport is assaulted in the area. The airspace was also modified to integrate the new airport making the new approach to the runway pass almost at the rooftop of some skyscrapers. The new airport is a political tool that is used to hide corruption and it was done as a political promise instead of actual good reasons. Being an airplane lover and a mexican this saddens me a lot.
Also there is very little to be done because the politicians that are responsible simply don’t listen to the complaints saying that it is a plot against them. Mexico is suffering due to the negligence of the ones in power.
@@gabrielcuevas9062 you forgot to mention the mammoth strike and the UFOs that sued mexican govt for increased traffic near their Teotihuacan base
Do you have more data about the controllers issue? I'd appreciate to know more.
yep..
@@JulioSSierraCamarena I recommend if you speak spanish or try the subtitles on a series of interviews to Maria Larriva. She is the first female ATC controllers, and she has been probably the one who has been more vocal about the series of incidents. I think she was the one who exposed this problem with unqualified workers and it is really interesting to hear the point of view from inside out. This interviews also exposes a plethora of other problems like the airspace redesign in Mexico City.
Greetings from Mexico. You were very diplomatic explaining the situation. The issue is more political. The new MEX airport at Texcoco was being built big, not only to help reduce the present congestion but to become an important hub. The new president, an unsophisticated and uneducated populist man, without consultation and disregarding any advice cancelled all contracts (that he had to pay anyway). He decided to cancel MEX anyway in order to build his new airport AIFA in an already discarded location and to ruin the previous investors (his political enemies) in favor of his military supporters to run the newer AIFA airport. He created the current chaos because the two airports cannot operate simultaneously. He forced some minor airlines to move to the new AIFA airport that only has 14 gates but only 2 flight a day. It is not certified yet... and we doubt if it will ever be. Passengers do not like the location, there is no road or mass transportation to it and there is no interconnectivity between them. Legacy airlines do not like it either for many reasons, first lack of proper certification. The president has ordered his new MEX airport director appointee to slow down and degrade MEX airport services with no maintenance, no improvements in order to force airlines and public to use his new airport. The pilots and air traffic controllers unions are revolting as well. The traveling public is awaiting the 2024 election hoping the current party in power is defeated to change things back to the way there were planned in 2018 and restart the new MEX airport as previously planned. Mexico is living dark moments with this ignorant and corrupt man as president. We can only hope it will change in July 2024. I like your very good videos. My Dad was one of the first airmen of Mexico in the 1920s.
Great comment. It's a shame that these people got into power. Hopefully, after many thousands of million pesos, we'll be able to restore things to how they were when AMLO leaves.
Sigan soñando ardidos, la 4T tiene para rato
Great video Petter.
Been there a few times as crew.
One heck of a challenging approach in the old field.
Anyone want to bet that by the time they're done putting in the transport stuff mentioned, converting the old airbase into a new airport, and doing needed upgrades at the old airport that it's going to be more expensive than finishing the big fancy new one would have been?
Are you new to politics and bureaucracy? lol
@@zackberry6729 Oh i'm aware. But my pedantic ass can't resist pointing it out.
I bet you cannot spell "Norman Foster", much less explain his worst 3 mistakes in architecture
Reaearch "Harmon Hotel". It will save you countless shame and you'll thank me the rest of your life
PS: Just kidding, we all know you're incapable of all that
The big fancy new one is eventually gonna be constructed, this current president only has 2 yrs left in his presidency and he can’t and won’t be allowed to stay in power.
Not only that, but by cancelling the airport the president basically made Mexico’s economy take a hit of uncertainty. Many outside investors are now hesitant to invest in the country, as he’s done the same thing with other sectors, like the energy industry. It’s not just having a whole airport thrown away, but a complete disregard of pragmatism in favor of politics and demagoguery.
Hey Mentour Pilot thank you for this video! I am a private pilot from Mexico City. here is a bit more insight on the topic:
1: The whole aviation community is pissed off about the cancellation of the Texcoco Airport, this new one is extremely mediocre, it looks like one of the airports in our other states (Toluca, Cuernavaca, Queretaro), even the "old one" (MMMX) looks better and that is saying a lot, given that the Texcoco Airport was going to be an architectural/aeronautical marvel.
2: It would be great to hear your thoughts on this whole other issue with the new airport (Felipe Angeles). The general consensus of the aviation professionals is that it was built in a crappy location to begin with. The approaches are considered dangerous or unstable and it's messing with the approaches/departures that were already established in MMMX (pilots have been improvising holding patterns for example, just going on 360s cause the established patterns no longer work). this is also part of the reason why all the incidents in MMMX are happening.
2.5 (lol): for those reasons international airlines don't even wanna touch this airport, and our president managed to make a deal with Venezuela (double lol) to open up a route just so he can call this airport "international".
Again I'm a private pilot so my understanding is limited but I've seen the Air Traffic Control authorities go on national television to explain why this new airport is messing so much with the old one, how they rushed to finish it and get it "working", and how it was impossible that they were going to deliver with their promise of having the airport "fully operational at full capacity" by the time it opened. As you see in the comments of this video, it only has 6 flights a day.
The point here being: Is this new airport really going to be a solution, and do we really even want to move all our air traffic there?
The infamous CHAIFA or NLU airport is a huge PANS OPS disaster, besides its runways being built facing a very large mountain range which will limit forever its use by heavy loaded aircraft. MSA is so high that we pilots have been warned by our airlines to “use good judgment and visual aides” in case of engine failure. According to inside people in SENEAM and AFAC, both airports cannot be used simultaneously in rush hours, or whenever storms are present. That means almost always…….
About the Texcoco Airport, another thing I want to bring up is why the hell would you commit to a project, only to cancel it halfway through? All that you've done is left a great big scar in the land with no practical use that'll take years to be fully reclaimed by nature, if that ever happens. Seems to me like a massive Sisyphean effort unless I'm missing something.
@@nerd2814 Let me explain, the reality is that this current Mexican Prez is a populist, very ignorant and he's mentally sick. He doesn't like change, dislikes ALL past politicians and his aim is to discredit them even it means doing stupid things. This is the perfect example, the NAIM (New airport in Texcoco) was at 35% completion when he took power. It was on budget, on time and the airport consortium had 88% of the necessary budget to complete the project. Only 12% was missing something that was quite easy for the federal government to give but this prez said NO because the project was too expensive for the country and there was a lot corruption in the project.
1) Most of the money had already been gathered by placing bonds in wall street, these bonds were guarantee to be paid by the future taxes collected at the airports (So his excuse was false because most of this money came from wall street investors not the federal gov as he clamed. He lied)
2) 2 years later after the cancellation of the airport in Texcoco his own attorney general confessed that NO corruption was found within the project (So another his lies came crashing down)
This decision has had many negative results but the most important ones are:
1) Mexico's credibility as a stable government and a secure place to invest has been tarnished by Lopez-Obrador's actions. Many investors national and foreign had decided to invest somewhere else.
2) The cancellation of new airport in Texcoco has cost the country a lot. The final price tag to complete the project was around USD $16-17 billions. But since only 33% was built, They had to return the investment to the bond holders with interest as this is a standard procedure, they just returned part of the money with 20% interest, but there is a huge part that hasn't been paid for, this part was used to pay for the 33% construction and the cancellation fees that came as a result of cancelling construction contracts, other contracts, equipment and material supplies contracts.
Then there is the new AIFA airport at the military base, well this was supposed to be USD $3.5 billions but they have spent 5 billions already and it hasn't been finished. it's still under construction but as far as Lopez is concerned it's been inaugurated ("completed").
The final price tag for what is left of the New airport in Texcoco is construction + cancellation fees + waste equipment and material = around 17.5 billion + the final tag for the airport at the military base is around 6 billions when they finish only part one so the mess that this guy caused Mexico is round 23.5 billions. For this money Mexico has not airport to meet the current and future demand, this idea of having 2 airports with only one way to come in is just plain stupid. Wouldn't it have been easier to let the 17 billion New airport at Texcoco to be completed? What was wrong with having a super hud airport with a capacity of 120 million passengers + millions of tons in cargo for 17 billions when you spent 23.5 billions and have nothing. This is Lopez-Obrador and like this project there are at least 4 big other projects that are just a waste of money.
@@nerd2814 It has to do with politics in México. The current president, Andres Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), ran as a candidate at least 2 times before winning in 2018 (2006 and 2012), when two other political parties where in power (PAN and PRI respectively). His whole political agenda is speaking against these 2 parties and the corruption that reigned in the country under both of these parties, and how he will "eradicate" the corruption from México (spoiler alert, he turned out to be the same or worse than the ones before him, but that's another subject). As the new México City airport was planned, designed and built under the previous governments, he claimed that the whole thing was drowning in corruption (but he never provided any proof, nor was anyone even investigated let alone arested), so whe ordered a referendum to "let the people decide if the Texcoco airport was the right choice". The referendum was a big fraud: It wasn't organized by the electoral authority in México, the ballots weren't even numbered and there was no control over who voted and who didn't, so naturally they cancelled the new airport in Texcoco and they started to build Santa Lucía.
Now, there's a whole lot of problems with that: Texcoco was supposed to be financed from the airport usage fee in the current airport, however, the penalties that the Mexican government had to pay for the cancellation are now public debt and every mexican will have to pay for it; moreover, AMLO has been criticized for giving the military more and more power and responsabilities within the country, and as Santa Lucía is a military airport, it's the military who are in charge of building it, assigning the contracts for building it and managing it once it's finished (the problem being that the data from contracts and how much it costs has been reserved for 5 years under the pretext of national security after a journalist uncovered overprized purchases and corruption).
All in all it was a stupid decision based on resentment, lies and manipulation that cost México 1% of the GDP that year, and a mistake that the country will be paying for many decades, given the potential for Texcoco to be a hub and a gateway to South America from Europe and Asia
the only thing I don't agree is that an airport doesn't need to be luxurious, pretty or an "architectural marvel", especially for a poorer country like Mexico. I'm. more of a function over form kind of person.
Mexican here, honestly, watching all the news about the Felipe Ángeles was like watching a Looney Toons show, at one point they tried to make an airport right in front of a mountain and everyone was making fun out of that, and honestly, had not been for this video, I would have never knew about all the accidents at the airport! My family watches the news every night and I don't remember any of the incidents you mentioned.
Also, no one is really using the FA airport, we memed that it looked like a subway station called El Rosario more than an actual airport and that was it, I don't thinks there's a lot of people using it, but then again, I could be wrong about that.
You should do a review on Tan Son Nhat International Airport (SGN-Vietnam). A airport in the middle of an metropolis, overcrowded airspace, little room to expand and has to accommodate growing number of travelers. It's a nightmare to fly there, especially in the summer months and public holidays
Also the MMMX airspace was redesigned, resulting in more hours flown by planes and delays, there is a new south inbound route but tends to have bad weather.
This was a fascinating, informative production. I am always in awe of how well, Peter, you explain aviation in a way that we novices can easily understand. -Gee Boggs, Sonoma, CA USA
The cancellation of the old airport was a disaster, for anyone who has lived in Mexico City they know the “new” airport is too far not just in distance but in traffic time which could take 2-3 hours depending on your location. This has caused the new airport to be dumped by every international airline and local airlines where forced to fly there to save the government’s face
Toluca airport it’s open again
You know Mexico is bigger than Mexico City, right? And this actually arises further issues, being te lack of proper transportation around Mexico City, mainly Estado de México.
There is actually a train line being built to connect the airport to the city. Leaving it's construction in charge of the Estado de México, was a mistake by the federal government, they can't even finish the one to Toluca.
I don't know how because building a airport on mud isn't a good Idea so good thing it got cancelled
yep
The airport was built far from the main city because the city will continue growing. It’s not very smart to build an airport inside the city limits when they city is a mega metropolis. In a few years the airport will be surrounded with suburbs.
It seems crazy to me that the biggest city in the world only had one airport, and now still only has two. Here in the UK I think we still need another purpose-built airport in London and there are five airports that already serve the capital.
That's isn't easy, Mexico City it's surrounded by mountain ranges, which limits the approach routes, that is why it was intended to make a mega airport, not the Frankenstein that there is now.
Can't build more airports if there isn't space for them.
I 100% agree with your evaluation of the present situation, of course I do. The one thing that would frighten me to death is the thought of another kind of accident you have done a video on, the Tenerife diasaster. It's fantastic the industry is picking up after a terrible two years almost. lets hope for everyones sake, the industry can get to grips with the new surge in travel as quickly and more importantly, as safely as possible. Another great, informative video Captain Petter, I thoroughly each one you do on all your channels and it makes my day when my notification bell tells me you have posted.
Thank you so much for creating this channel! I’ll admit, I was on the fence about this when you first announced it but it has easily turned into one of my favourite channels and one of my favourite ways to get information and interesting stories about aviation that I would not hear about other wise.
I just had two connecting flights in this airport. Our second flight got delayed for an hour as well. I had no idea all this was going on!
I remember flying into MEX as a passenger on a number of times back in 2012 to 2015, and it's layout always seemed very tight and cramped for aircraft movements. I always imagined there could be problems with too much air traffic congestion. I will be avoiding it until they sort things out.
It is a very old airport. While the old Terminal 1 was state of the art in the 50s and 60s, it became too small after the 70s airline expansion. Both Mexicana and Aeromexico went to have a combined fleet of 120 aircraft in the mid 80s and even Mexican would become the largest Boeing 727 operator in the world, outside the US, with more than 54 aircraft. Terminal 2 was just an add on in order to increase available gates but it has become too crowded and its alley design is a disaster for connecting passengers or air traffic rush hours. I have been held more than 30 minutes for a pushback clearance.
Funny, I was so focused on translating the ATC transcript in my head before I realized that you'd already put the English underneath.
😂💕
Thank you for talking about how more AT controllers with a reasonable workload is necessary for safety. Politicians and beancounters tend to ignore those vital people.
ps- Petter, your Mexican pronunciations are beautiful!
Every word he says is music 🎶 to my ears. Love the accent😻
seems to me like they need three traffic control centers, linked by high speed data communication: an approach control center, and then a ground traffic and air traffic center for each airport - essentially treating them like one airport with two sets of runways.
Peter, the AIFA airport is 2:30 to 3 hours away from Mexico City, nobody wants to go there. There are no cabs, transportation the the City at night. So, it is unlikely it will help
The problem with Texcoco's project is the soil composition that prevented the landing tracks from being completed. Ground was brought from nearby locations and attempted to compact the ground time and again but the desired compactation was never achieved.
You forgot to mention how the arrival route has changed. Airplanes coming from north meet airplanes coming from south straight ahead just before the final turn. The whole new design puts a lot of strain on the pilots too.
That’s what I was referring to as “updated airspace”
When do they "meet" each other exactly, if there's a turn? A turn that happens before the meet, right? Please stop making incoherent claims.
@@JorgeOrpinel "incoherent claims"
Have you even seen the airspace redesign? Do you know what they're talking about? Or are you here just to defend politics?
Closing the Texcoco airport had a lot of problems: built on a dried lake, the runways had 10 meters in depth to stabilized them, these means huge amounts of concrete and investment; there are lots of large birds on the lake that’s still alive and the zone is prone to flooding, among other drawbacks.
The Texcoco benefits were more than the drawbacks. Such a big city requires an equally big airport. A two-airport system might seem less expensive. However, the high altitude, meteorological conditions and topography of the region make their simultaneous operation extremely difficult and risky. In addition to the flight security concerns, there is an important lack of connectivity for the Felipe Angeles which still lacks proper facilities for passengers and merchandise logistics.
Also, the Texcoco project already contemplated what to do to minimize its environmental impact. The lake has been dead for decades, only getting partially flooded during the rain season. Naturally, birds will arrive to any water body, but many of them are invasive species. The terminal would act as a huge rain collecting system connected to a water cleansing plant nearby, trees and animal species were being relocated to nearby lakes which were also being rehabilitated as part of the project. Those lakes would be part the draining system of the zone. Of course, as any other airport, it would have relied on birds of pray, drones and other mechanisms to scare away birds and force native and migratory birds to stay at the nearby rehabilitated lakes.
In November 2021, my flight to Mexico City was delayed for nearly 2 hours because of "excessive traffic" over Benito Juarez airport. Obviously, they were already overwhelmed.
That has been happening since the past year, I take the Cancún to Mexico City route alot which is the busiest route in the country and since the past year the flights have been always delayed not only in Mexico City but from Cancún Airport as well.
@@BadBoy93143 True. Sometimes they delay departure from Cancún because airspace in Mexico City is crowded
@@kkfoto actually yes but in the past year it has been delay after delay when in the past it wasn't like that, yes there have been some delays from time to time but were rare and now its very common and not little delays, delays of at least 2 hours.
Take into account that Cancún International Airport its the best airport in Mexico in terms of infrastructure.
I went thru (as passenger) Mexico City airport at the end of 2017. I was surprised at how high it was, and it was pretty cold too, maybe just a few degrees C above zero. Some of the buildings are not completely sealed. The biggest thing was the large area where people would line up. Probably 1000 people in the queue, about 45 mind to get thru that.
It is too bad that politicians over turn the previous leader's projects. Once started it seems to make most sense just to finish the project. Now they wasted a bunch of money and time, and likely will still have to do a proper new airport anyways.
I'm usually not a big fan of throwing good money after bad, but one giant, partially-built airport over budget sure seems a whole lot better than two sub-par, unsafe airport sharing airspace.
@Kent Slocum So, if the person building your house was not only overcharging you but also spitting in your face, and also building it over mud, and making additional business at your expenses, you would just take the spit because you already invested some money? Sorry if I seem harsh but that's how I see it.
@@davidnavarro6582 A lot of the city is built over dried up lakes and floods are not rare, in your logic none of the homes should have been built in the first place. With a proper drainage system any issues with Texcoco would be moot.
@@mexcore14 @Alberto Oviedo no, they shouldn't have been built, but they were. And yes a proper pumps system could prevent flooding, but it would be too impractical and expensive, and wouldn't fix the uneven sinking.
@@davidnavarro6582 What did the government do? Took the spitting to the face pay for it to be biolt over mud, make additional expenses and then make even more additional expenses to make a sub-par airport, horrible decision.
This is an issue I’ve been noticing- more and more airports, having been initially built outside of the metropolitan areas, are now getting crowded with industrial and even residential construction, and it’s gonna cause issues in the future.
Sounds like a big mess😱
Yeah just look at London. They already have like 4 airports and yet there's still talks of somehow expanding Heathrow lol
I know it's basically impossible but going forward cities should make the areas around main airports off limits through zoning. Have blueprints for additional runways in the event they're needed and have that land set aside.
@@Panfilo2 yup. It’s like Salt Lake City. They built that airport where they “thought” would be well away from town, and now it’s a clusterf*** of businesses and everything else around there. If they ever needed to expand, they’d have to do some serious work
@@thetowndrunk988 it's almost like the airport attracts business and hotels haha there will definitely be some bulldozing required if it ever needs it
Lol you just realized something that’s been obvious since the 1980s. This is why the US has very few large state of the art suburban airports and has many small old airports near city limits that are constrained by build up.
I'm pretty impressed by the nuanced context and the far, broad view you took into highlighting all the most-likely culprits behind those airport incidents, while also being thoughtful and understanding of the ATC personal labor situation and struggles, at the moment.
Moreover, I really didn't expected you to be capable of honestly discussing the Texcoco airport project in any depth, but you did so in such an unbiased and fair manner, politically and professionally, that I had to praise your work.
Ironically after cancelation fees México payed double the original Texcoco cost.
Thanks for sharing this with your platform, it's a big problem for us users.
You are lying, the cost of the new airport happens to be much lower than the cost of the Texcoco airport. Not to mention the maintainance cost that would be required since it was going to destroy the environment and will be sinking constantly.
@@Marusanchez100 maybe if you'd be better informed you'll see that what I'm saying it's true
@@Marusanchez100 Do you think stopping a mega project of that size is free? There were a lot of private investors and companies on that project, the cancelation fees and reimbursements bloated the cost at an astronomical level, for absolutely nothing...
@@natsirtboy said "maybe if you'd be better informed"
Maybe if you'd be basically honest, you'd provide support for your claims
I'll provide support for the claim YOU'RE LYING
From El Financiero:
"NAIM tiene un retraso de 2 años; operará en 2022
...
Otras desventajas, explicó, serían el mayor costo, ya que ha pasado de 169 mil millones de pesos, en 2014, a 300 mil millones, además de los altos costos de mantenimiento no precisados e impactos ambientales"
How much does it cost TWO YEARS of delay?
How much does it costs to keep dry a sinking airport?
@@mexcore14 said "for absolutely nothing"
Research "Harmon Hotel" and say again "for absolutely nothing" without even blinking
I know you can do it asleep, it's just a proof of concept
This looks very much to me like one of those situations where an incoming government facing economic problems took a look at the short-term upfront costs of the replacement airport and cancelled it - then they looked for a cheaper option (in the short-term) and took it without drilling down into the consequent long-term costs (extra ATC complexity, needing to hire more controllers etc.).
This is one of those scenarios where it's a bad idea for governments and public sector bureaucracies to follow private-sector practices (specifically making far-reaching infrastructure decisions based on short-term costs). By focusing on the short-term, they may have got themselves a secondary airport that solved the basic capacity issue, but they've also saddled themselves with a serious infrastructure issue and ongoing long-term costs indefinitely.
An additional problem this decision saved up for the future is evident at 10:35, namely if your city is going to have two major airports serving as transportation hubs, you're going to eventually need to provide some form of rapid transit between the two of them to manage situations whereby passengers arriving at one airport have a connecting flight at the other if you don't want to have the same problems as, say, New York. That's going to become another major and ongoing expense.
You know nothing.
It's not just the new government facing economic problems, but the economic problems the previous regime left for it to deal with. The Texcoco airport was a pool of corruption and an enviromental disaster. It had already exceeded the budget over and over and over costs were not just being paid but also owed, not even being near complition nor even halfway there (they just rose some structures so it looked like it was under construction). The soil was the least optimal to build an airport. Long story short, it was an airport never to be finished from the begining and if it ever did get finished, just the constant soil bombing, runway and structure maintnance would be expensive af.
All of this was once thought as a good idea in a country that has most of it people struggling due to fundamental needs like health and food, education, jobs and security. So it was really needed to stop throwing the money away.
That's why the new government decided to cancel that project wich would only benefit the private sector, get the army to build (an run) a new civil airport in an already existing military base site. And yes, costs rose a bit due to steel and concrete prices going up during the pandemic but nothing compared to the Texcoco's prices rising for the private companies' sake only... over and over... anytime they felt like it. And in record time the AIFA was designed, financed and built. It's now just waiting for the road connections to be finished and the metro that goes from it to downtown CDMX to start working at it's fullest. Texcoco's airport lies now under the waters of that 'dried lake bed' it was being constructed on and now the world's biggest recreational park is being built there... using the actual lake.
It is always politicians who take the short term approach, the one that keeps them in power and satisfies their base whether that is big spending or tax cuts. Private businesses are always looking at long term and keeping costs low and remaining profitable because if they don't they could go out of business. The government never has that problem.
@@cesarspencemarin7598 It still speaks to the myopic actions of the current administration. Rather than address the issues you brought up, the decision was made to cancel the project. It is the classic definition of cutting off your nose to spite your face. Oh, might I add that the decision was put up to vote... much like brexit. The entire affair reeks and the solutions were politically expedient but practically disastrous. No wonder they call Obrador El Cacas, everything he touches turns to poop.
12:28 Your critique and suggestions as someone who has his hand on the pulse of the industry is what we (the viewers) flock to MentourPilot and Mentour Now for.
.
There were some naysayers who questioned as to why Petter and team were 'diluting' a highly successful channel by opening a new one.
But in my mind indeed Petter sir👨🏻✈️... I loved it from the get go.. that now while the documentaries making teams are still at work with the research and presentation...
... another team and you yourselves can also be a little informal and spontaneous with current events.
While also catering to the shorter format but just as engaging content.
.
Hats off to the whole team👌🏽🤍 as always.
I fly in and out of Mexico City three or four times a year. I've never been a nervous flyer, but I think I'll have another couple of drinks before landing at Benito Juarez from now on.
Yikes...me too! Going next week!
Unfortunately, the cancellation of the Texcoco Airport, as beneficial as it could have been, was purely a political move that ruined the possibility of Mexico City having a state-of-the-art airport. Even us Mexicans now how dumb of a decision it was, but the current political situation is affecting every corner of this nation.
As always, a great video with excellent information!
Glad you found it interesting and thank you for your input.
They are the same everywhere
The cancellation was never beneficial, Texcoco lake have been dry for decades, the Texcoco project also was going to help to collect a lot of water for Mexico City area.
Politicians are the scum of the earth.
This is a big lie, the Texcoco airport was a big scam, it was obstructed by two hills and that information was never published. The Chiconautla and the Chimalhuacán, violating ICAO Annex 14 and FAA regulations. we were lucky that doubt canceled, it would have caused a lot of problems in the future.
That incredible airport was cancelled just on political basis, without any other single reason than the current president seeing its cancellation as a triumph mock to the previous president, from a different party. He rushed the construcción of that horrible secondary airport without any regard for the design of the airspace and now thousands could be in risk of being in an incident all because political warfare. Thank you for covering this. I’m a huge fan :)
That airport was going to flood, they would have to pump water out just keep it running. Operating costs would be too high
@@markmunoz3951 that airport had bunch hydraulic systems to prevent that plus, they were going to build water recharge zones etc they had huge and well planned hydraulic design to help with Mexico City water problems even
@@maloavi costs would still be too high even with that... Mexico is in no place to be spending that much on an airport haha
@@markmunoz3951 actually mexico deserved that kinda airport over 30
Million people living in the potential service area , central de abastos mexico most important food distribuition market etc and it was going to be really close to it
@@markmunoz3951 well the cost is to high to prove mexico city extra water reserves ?
@ 7:14 - Recipe for disaster. In the church I attend as a Sound Technician, a new temple is being built, and a new Sound System is to be one of the features. Our team was told that, since this will happen, we don´t need much new material now, since we´re expected to move in one year. Problem is, we have immediate needs (including substituting few essential cables), that are not being met for two years straight, and mounting failures during the services have led me to stop collaborating within the team. Take from Peter to pay Paul not good politics I reckon.
what a great way to start the day, thanks for the commitment to consistent content!
Great explanation Peter! Awesome as usual. Mex is my least favorite airport of all time. Been there well over 100 times and it never ceases to amaze me how screwed up that place is.
The Sponsor insert though showing Paxti being bored 🤣🤣🤭🤭
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Seems like a case study in systemic problems, another great video.
Reminded me of back in the 2000’s, I was getting vectors around to land on 28 at MYNN. The were switching runways and approach had us all the around the south end of the island. As I switched to tower turning about a six mile final (Nm) I heard the tower drag an old G4 out to “line up and wait” on 28. We fully configured and went to Vref+5 way out. The G4 call ready two times as I recall and the tower gave him a “stand by”. That voice sounded awfully familiar in the G4 when captain came on and said “don’t hit me”. The tower was a little be busy with someone’s directions on a taxiway as I recall when on a one mile final I ask the tower of his intentions. The tower never responded till we reported the GA. Though I will not admit to giving my brother in law a haircut, I kept it at least a couple hundred ft and off set slightly. The Tower finally got off his fixation and gave us a head and altitude back to the south East. It almost happened again at WSSL between my brother in-law. Again my bro knew it was my plane before I knew it was his 550 on the runway ahead. He just said “here we go again” on the other side of this ball. What are the odds?
Anyway, heads up in the third world. We go months in a row landing at new airports (new to us) and you have to stay on your “toes”. :-D I was flying a lot in Mexico seemed in the nineties and there was always something to see there that you would not in the US or Europe. (Sorry I’m bored in a hotel room)
Even an initial build of one new runway and a small facility at the new location would relieve some air traffic issues, and likely pay for the rest of the build. So odd that they're not following through.
The president and his cohorts aren't quite interested in finishing the project once the inauguration is done, they rushed it and now they don't care.
Because ad it turns out, the infrastructure needed for that airport (highways and stuff) are going to be even more expensive stuff han the Texcoco airport was going to be.
@@SeekerNami yeah... They decided to build an airport without taking into account issues like accessibility, plumbing, costs. It was more of a project to grab money than anything (big surprise in México)
Mexico City international Airport is just too small for the traffic it handles. Recently a new state of the art Airport was built just a few miles north of the city but there's barely any transportation or connectivity between airports and to make matters worst ubers are not allow to operate around the new Airport!!! How will passengers get to or from this airport? most airlines refused to operate from this new airport for that reason. The old decaying airport just a few miles from downtown is just more convenient for most passengers though is a headache
State of the art my balls!
Excellent presentation, thorough, objective, and clear.
Regarding the proposal to build a new airport on a lake bed - I would have done due diligence and found out what the maximum height of the water level would be, then raise the airport extra higher in order to prevent unwanted flooding. Because water loves to get in everywhere. And Fukushima.
That would have been expensive and the ground below would still be muddy since it held water.
First of all, I want to thank you for the effort you have taken to pronounce such difficult very ancient Mexican words. Even for foreign Spanish speakers, those words are quite difficult to say. As a Mexican myself it means a lot.
Also, I think you nailed all the issues circumventing the MMMX problems and the aviation crisis we’re facing. Politics in my country is such a sad and conflicting subject.
he is Swedish trust me they know all about languages and pronunciation. lol
The main problem with the miltary airport is there is no public transportation to the airport
and while we are here the authorities thought lets make things more fun for ATC and pilots. The two airports are just 42km apart with runway numbers nearly identical (MEX : 5/23, NLU : 4/22). Petter you confirm with these conditions there is always a risk of intercepting a wrong localizer from another airport right? This happens frequently in US with nearby airports.
Also I am wondering why don't they make the bigger airport of the two, the international one and the smaller one only for domestic flights? again Petter let me know what you think.
Great video as always thank you
Actually, that is the idea, the old airport will take the international traffic and the new one the local. The problem is that there is no speedway between them and easily it can take you a few hours to move from one to the other, so your connections will be at risk.
@@Fafahrd it takes 1 hour to arrive to the Felipe Angeles
@@eLocolucas CDMX friends told me that one hour 15 minutes is the ideal time in a private car, but that for a trip I was planning I should think of a 2 hour trip.
People also need to know that the "new" Felipe Angeles International Airport is useless, it only has 4 daily local flights, combined with the fact that it's FAR so far from Mexico City and it has no real connection with the city besides two small highways. So the Felipe Angeles Airport only complicated the Mexico City airspace without helping with the air traffic.
Do you own a map. Felip Angeles is in Mexico City, not far from it. We need to stop thinking like tourists, yes it's far from the Zocolo but near 6 MILLION people.
As for your comment on 4 daily local flights, it's patently false. Just go to Google flights and put in NLU and leave the the destination open. I chose September 8th just two weeks out and there's quite a lot. All of the Mexican airlines are running flights out of NLU now. You can still pretend there's only 4 if you'd like, it will mean there's more room for the rest of us.
They are only 5 flights scheduled for today. Also, it is far from the city. Obviously, it is close to population areas surrounding the city, but it is nearly 50km from the actual city with little to no connections.
@@ling636 50 km from the actual city? Have you ever been to Mexico City or if you have maybe you think Roma Norte/Condesa is the actual city? The area surrounding Felipe Angeles has more people than Los Angeles California . Think about that for a moment. Those people currently have to go clear south to AICM.
@@GrantMcWilliams Lol. Ad hominem attacks?
You are referring to the Metro area. While yes, it is populous it is still not the proper city. People living in Ecatepec will not claim to live in the city, they will say they are from Ecatepec, Estado de Mexico
I don't know if this is relevant but on an Aeromexico flight from Texas to CDMX a few months back I noticed that the pilots left the cockpit doors open during takeoff. I've never seen anything like that before (was a kid when 9/11 happened). I thought it was off but was also so fascinated by seeing them engage thrusters and begin rotation that I wasn't complaining. Honestly I've flown into Benito Juarez regularly on Aeromexico for the past 5 years and have had no issues personally - I didn't really know all this was going on besides the drama with the new airport. The most interesting thing about flying into Mexico City is how late the descent feels. Like you're in the clouds and next thing you know you feel only meters above buildings leading into the airport.
For the record, officially the MEX airport’s name is still “Aeropuerto Internacional de la Ciudad de México”. Back when Luis Echeverría was president he proposed to rename it to Benito Juarez, though it was never approved by the Senate nor the House of Deputies. But as usual, work for the “new” name started way before they made it official, everybody bought the re-naming.
You can call it whatever you fancy, though officially it is NOT Benito Juarez, it is AICM, for short …
¡De nada !
When Foreflight even lists MMMX as Benito Juarez International you know it’s done or de facto. Either way it’s pretty hard to reverse.
Lo siento.
Name is shown in big letters in front of all the planes, so it is and quit trying to look smart, that nobody thanked u
I was flying into Mexico City airport last month was about to land we did last minute go around
Thank you for sharing this aviation story.
I hope the Mexico City will continue to be safe!! I hope so!!
Thank you for the explanation Mentour Pilot - very glad you clarified the matter in terms everybody can understand.
Off topic, but related: I have read of the new Berlin airport which took 15+ years to complete; then the notice disappeared from the news.
Could you tell what are your thoughts about it? Is it running fine?
Thanks alot...
Anthony
There are not only 2 airports serving Mexico City, you also have to mencion Toluca International Airport that is now also serving Mexico city
he also didn't mention the corrupt government so ye
Fantastic coverage as always 🙏🏿👑
Well made video. Very informative and I’m glad others are noticing this problem. I’m from Mexico City and it’s always so stressful flying into and out of this airport. I try to take either very early or late flights into and out of this airport to avoid high peak hours. At least that’s my thinking. I may be wrong.
Great information! And also, amazing job on the pronunciation.
They should still build the additional airport, one runway, one taxiway, one building at a time. One runway and an old shed is not going to cost too much.
another superb production. keep it up petter!
I flight to Mexico City, all the time. At times is chaotic. More than one time on arrival, we had to wait 20 plus minutes to get a gate. Long lines at immigration (not a big deal), and it seems that you always, have to be running and on alert, when in the terminal. The low cost airlines(Volaris and Viva Aerobus), have always full planes, and long lines on their check in areas. The relieve airport up north, Felipe Angeles, it's a good idea, but it's gonna take time, while the demand, keeps outgrowing the place.
i work for the wheelchair service in PHX (specially the international side) and mexico city flights always have 10+ wchr PAX on board with full flights.
A funny thing, i flew into Mexico City a few years ago to catch a connecting to Riviera Nayarite. So i deplaned, switched my luggage to a conveyor and was in the airport so i never crossed customs. I was probably illegally in Mexico without knowing.
When you placed your luggage on the conveyor belt, that was customs, and they decide "randomly" who to check or not
Another great video! I had watched the VAS video of that near miss (wonder if that counts as a “Never Event”) but didn’t understand the background until now, thanks!
Why would you cancel a partially built airport in an excellent location which already cost $13 billions just to start a brand new one way further away from the city? This seems completely stupid to me...
Thank you for this information.
Many people travel to Mexico City for all sorts of business and this is a very good explanation of the current situation.
Very good video. The complexity of the airspace required a new type of methodology to decrease the work load of ATC. They implement a close path methodology called Point merge, used in more than 30 airports around the globe. This new methodology needs to re adapt the way atc give instructions to aircraft.
A very good video with top notch editing, excellent job!
Other factors that influence this accidents lay on the current government cutting the budget given to SENAM (Mexicos ATC & Airspace Agency) with the argument that they where receiving to much and that money needed to be saved. This lead to older and more experienced personal in ATC to be retired during the low demand in the pandemic, but as you mentioned in the video when the tourism got back on its feet there was an urgent need to replace this controllers, but government decided (to save money) it was better to hire younger and more inexperienced personal.
Maybe a solution for airports is to find a space for 100 years of expansion, and run high speed trains to the city centre.
That way, they can build the thing correctly from the get go. Long, wide runways, with enough room between them for dual ops.
And while they are at it, put the Conversation Center next to it. Solves a lot of transportation issues
I just flew to and from MEX last month and I didn't encounter any problems at all. The left runway 05 was for takeoff and 05 right was landing. Some others have mentioned it, but the terrain around the airport makes it so that arrival and departure routes are tight. The weather can be very bad in and around the city as well.
Wow, I’m from Mexico and literally it was censored all over. I just didn’t knew this happened
Thank you very much for this video! Answering the question shortly: So much stuff that no solution is in sight.
Thanks Petter, for another outstanding production. Very informative, very understandable!! 👍✈✈👍
There is a huge problem with the new AIFA airport which doesn't get the attention it should be getting, and that is the actual real and practical gate capacity. The Mexican government is doing some strange math and asserts a ridiculously high number or potential gates. The reality is very different. Only half of the planned terminal was actually constructed and looking at a picture it is very easy to determine that is has only 14 points extending from the terminal itself. Now, it has always been said that each of these points would have two of the extendable boarding bridges, but it's still unclear how two average to large airplanes (not super small commuters) would co-exist in each space. So I think that even if airlines magically decided to move their operations to the new airport, it would be quickly apparent that the capacity to handle all the airplanes at the terminal isn't quite there yet. And as of now, there are no concrete plans on when the rest of the airpot terminal would even be built.
I would be interested on your input on the San Diego (SAN) airport and the problems they are having (landing etc). An "International" airport with only one runway in such a large city has become a large problem for them, and the topology of the greater San Diego area is making it difficult to find a location for a new airport. Originally, the idea was placed to use Mirmar Naval Air Station (Top Gun), but instead the Marines took that over and they are back to square one.
I'm from Mexico City, and I will never go to the Felipe Angeles, because they made it too far away from the city so transportation is expensive, that's more total travel time and more time lost. It currently runs 9 routes per day, the cancellation fo the Texcoco airport meant losing even more money, losing what was already paid for, plus all the fines and penalties for cancelling current international and local contractors, and spending more money into actually building it from the ground up. Nobody wants to fly out this damned airport that serves absolutely no purpose and did way more harm than good. But that's the result of this inadequate communist government that somehow managed to brainwash people into thinking this was a good idea.
Hello. My wife and I were on Aeromexico flight 693 on May 16th this year. Flying out of Toronto Canada, we were transiting through Mexico City to Lima and Cusco in Peru, our final destination. When we were coming in to land in Mexico City Benito Juarez, our aircraft (B737-8MAX) aborted landing and powered up for gaining altitude for a second attempt. We were told, I think, that wind was the factor. Anyway, we did land at the second attempt, but now knowing about the issues there at this airport, I am concerned that this event was actually more serious than it seemed to be! Would you happen to have some "insider information" relating to that on May 16th? Not long after the reported incident you describe in May. Thanks!
Mexico City is sinking they need to move the whole thing.
Which is what they are doing.
There's a lot more going on than you mentioned, the current government is as corrupt as the previous ones and the issues with traffic controllers is a lot more serious than it appears. On one side, the Felipe Angeles airport is totally operated by the army, which means that army air controllers are managing civil air traffic for which they don't have enough experience, on the other hand, the air controller team on the old airport was totally controlled by a mafia that have all their family members and friends with ZERO capacity/experience managing the air traffic, things are so bad there that some experienced air controllers were ditched and some others are literally being treated as slaves. In recent weeks the director (Víctor Hernández Sandoval) that created all this mess "resigned" but no legal action was taken against him as far as I know... And the issue still persists.
Not all the blame goes to the current government, there's another issue about air traffic routes that comes from previous governments, they literally let all the airlines do as they wanted and this caused last year's redesign of the air routes over Mexico City to turn into a damn mess, not only there's been risk of collisions in the airport but also in the air in nearby states, more specifically over Morelos. After the redesign, now you have planes approaching the airport from the south AND the north at the same time, previously they only approached from the north (not quite sure if form the east too). I live near the point where both routes converge to turn to the airport and believe me, sometimes planes look too damn close at this point that I think a disaster is very probable.
Sad to say, decades of corruption and the silly whims of the fool we currently have as president make me think the solution to all this issues is a lot less probable than a disaster.
I feel bad for México they have the worst president ever.
The previous government was 90% corruption, yes, but they did an astounding job for planning the Texcoco airport. It was going to be highly efficient, modern, and would bring positive evolution to the whole country... But then a populist harnessed the power. The outcome: The new government is 100% corruption / 0% brains, all its projects are failing while costing double or triple of the former projects. Mexico will pay dearly for this mistake.
I have been very informed about this situation through the years because it is of personal interest and was an important national topic for over 20 years mainly because the Benito Juarez Airport is at max capacity for several years now. The place where the new airport was going to be placed it's not only a dried bed lake, it's a very important natural area that provides numerous ecological services to Mexico City, it´s also whats left of the old Lake 1.- its a regulatory vase that avoids flooding into the city 2.- it provides water by capturing rainwater (Mexico City was founded over a lake about 700 years ago) 3.- it regulates temperature for the city. The prior project was a pharaonic airport that was going to close not only the old Benito Juarez airport but also the Santa Lucia airforce base. it was becoming an endless pit of money and was taking a lot of time to be finished (the current administration finished the new Felipe Angeles Airport in about 3 years while the previous airport was into it´s 3rd year of construction with less than 20% built) The main reason for this is that that particular Texcoco lakebed area sinks at a higher rate that the rest of the city when you try to build something over it. For just the runways they would have to be filling it constantly because the runways would keep sinking making the maintenance a nightmare and also a money pit. Why did the previous adminstration tried to build there? because they wanted to use the current airport lands to build a huge building corporative, complex... it was a huge business and corruption behind that decision. Before the cancellation of the NAIM (new airport in Texcoco) there was a referendum and the people voted to cancel the project.
Back to the video. The main reason for the construction of the Felipe Angeles airport (currently active) was to lower the number of operations on the old airport and bring it down to a safe number, the problem was that the airlines were reluctant to move to the new airport because it was farther away from the city, after the incident of the nearmiss planes, the goverment stepped in and forced the airlines to move a significant number of their operations to the new airport. They are currently doing so, and they have until October to comply with their agreements between airlines and gov.
the texcoco airport it has 20 years of studies in all aspects. the corruption that you named, hasnt been proof. the problem with the santa lucia airport. they can´t coexist together. the problem of airspace saturation in mexico city will remain.
@@brunosoler tell that to the hundreds of families affected by the destruction of their ancestral habitat by mining the mountains looking for tezontle in order to fill the runways that kept sinking. They were threatened for looking for justice. We need water, and nature. No estudios a modo para que se beneficien los de siempre. $$$$$
The "solution" to the problems of the new airport the you put forth without proof, have been many times more problematic than completing the original project. The new sad excuse for an airport that is supposed to solve the problem, is not operational and will never solve the problem. Still, you are parroting the political reasons for the cancellation and are offering no proof for your assertions. You are not credible and I do not believe you.
@@skalante55 Eres un titere del cacas. No tienes credibilidad y tus palabras son propaganda de la administracion.
@@Bob-Fields didn't know there were bots in you tube, interesting 🤔
Such a well done video!
You need to make a correction.the incident you described happened at the newly built airport, not the older airport.
Thanks for the upload a very interesting video indeed hopefully they will solve the problem.I really like the channel I am proud to be a member of the channel.Keep up the good work I look forward to the next video.Enjoy the rest of the weekend 😀
Felipe Ángeles is far away from Mexico City we are talking about two hours to make it just to the airport nobody wants it. Not mentioning that actually the cost of cancelling the Texcoco Airport and building Santa Lucia was higher than just finishing the original project.
For us Mexicans is sadly a political thing rather than an infrastructure plan
All technical criteria was brushed aside, because the mind challenged president imposed its agenda.
Thanks for sharing, you should have added:
The new airport is not nearly taking the overload. No one wants to go there.
Mexico city is a vial chaos and those scheduled 41 minutes of travel between airports can easily translate into 4h... This does affect aviation.
For the people living in the south of the country, which is the most heavily populated this is a real problem. The probability of loosing your flight by going to Felipe Angeles is way to high and no body wants to pay extra for a hotel...that is if there is any hotels over there.
So the clear solution si to take my international flights from my own state even if it is slightly more expensive and use Miami as my hub. I know my country even with experienced aviators and agents I wouldn't risk it.
Thanks for sharing, I dont like going to Mexico city anyways. 😌
I thought Petter will say „first steps to improve safety is learning maths on Skillshare” 😜
Ayy another upload this week :D