Originally Posted by
Adam Smith
Has MEX really gotten that much more congested since WS last operated this route (late 2018) and had a very nicely timed daytime turn? Wikipedia says it handled 45.4 million passengers last year vs 47.7 million in 2018, and aircraft size has generally been trending upwards (aircraft movements down from 459K to 322K in the same years), so the slot thing isn't making a ton of sense to me.
Mexico’s government started restricting slots - and actively reducing flights - at MEX a couple of years ago.
From a
2023 news article:
Mexican President Andres Manuel López Obrador has ordered the number of flights in and out of Mexico’s international airport (Benito Juárez, AICM) to be reduced from 52 to 43 per hour.
The reduction in flights will be the second to be instituted since October of last year when flights were cut back from 61 to 52.
Miguel Enrique Vallín Osuna, director of Mexico’s Federal Civil Aviation Agency, says fewer flights per hour should alleviate the “saturation of flights impacting the airport’s terminals.”
“A study was conducted over Mexico City’s airspace and it was determined the maximum number of flights to be safely in operation is 43 per hour,” said Vallín Osuna. “Given the over-saturated conditions in the airspace and airport terminals, it required a reduction of flights to safely and adequately provide a service.”
That put huge pressure on MEX’s existing traffic.
The president’s solution was to build his pet project second airport for Mexico City (NLU) which has turned into a white elephant. It’s far less accessible, useless for AM connections, and only served by a few flights operated by discount carriers (plus an occasional AM or United flight).