SICT Will Invest in Land Connectivity to AIFA

The Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications and Transport (SICT) specified that infrastructure works have been carried out to improve connectivity for airports in the central region of Mexico. However, the Mexican Front for Defense of National Aviation (FDAN) warns that the new projects will likely fail to cope with the forecasted demand. 

SICT provided an annual overview of infrastructure connectivity between the Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA) and Mexico City, highlighting that access to the airport will be easier once the Buenavista-AIFA Suburban Train is completed in 2023. The train will reduce travel time between Mexico City and AIFA to 39 minutes according to SICT’s first AIFA work report, which was presented one year after the inauguration of the airport, explained SICT via a press release.

Jorge Nuño Lara, Minister of Infrastructure, Communications and Transport, explains that the ministry is working to reorganize and strengthen Mexico’s airspace, and that AIFA’s infrastructure will improve efficiency. Nuño highlighted that AIFA meets all technical specifications to cater to all cargo and passengers with “excellence,” which include modern roads and the Suburban Train from Buenavista to the terminal.

SICT specified that during 2023, the ministry has taken numerous steps to improve land connectivity to AIFA. These works have been led by the federal government to reduce travel time for passengers. The ministry also explained that the government has worked to recover the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Category 1 in Aviation Operational Safety as part of its efforts to improve the air sector. 

SEDENA and SICT have collaborated with all agencies involved for the construction of AIFA and the governments of Mexico City and the State of Mexico to develop numerous infrastructure works: the San Jeronimo access, the toll-free highway from Tonanitla to AIFA and the expansion of the Autopista Mexico-Pachuca from four to eight lanes.  

“I have witnessed the good impression that the design and operation of AIFA has caused in the airline industry; it provides easy access to tax facilities and it has capacity to expand in the future in an orderly manner in the review of requests, logistics processes and operational efficiency on the airside, which is just what the national airport system needs to grow,” says Nuño.

However, the FDAN has warned authorities and the general population that AIFA and the Toluca International Airport (TLC) lack the necessary infrastructure to attend the forecasted demand from a relocation of operations and flights from the Mexico City International Airport (AICM), as reported by MBN.