Mexico hands over some flight slots at capital airport from Mexican airlines to U.S. carriers

An AeroMexico plane taxis on the tarmac of the Benito Juarez International Airport, in Mexico City, May 12, 2022. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte, File)

MEXICO CITY - Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Monday that Mexican airlines had agreed to hand over some flight slots at the nation’s busy capital airport to U.S. carriers, amid an ongoing spat between the countries over flight distribution.

“Several weeks ago, there was a redistribution in slots, in which Mexican airlines gave up their spots to U.S. airlines, taking competitiveness into account,” Sheinbaum said in her daily morning press conference.

Sheinbaum declined to say how many slots were impacted, adding that next year, a digital flight distribution system was set to be rolled out and U.S. and other international airlines were already on board.

The concession comes as the U.S. Department of Transportation has cracked down on Mexican airlines’ operations in the U.S. in recent months, several years after Mexico cut slots at the capital airport and moved cargo flights to a newer, farther-away site.

In October, the DOT revoked approval for more than a dozen routes by Mexican carriers and cancelled combined passenger and cargo flights by Mexican airlines to the U.S. out of the new Felipe Angeles International Airport (AIFA).

Still, Sheinbaum said that U.S. authorities had to “recognize the importance of both airports,” the main Mexico City International Airport (AICM) and the AIFA, which was built by Sheinbaum’s predecessor and mentor, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

Lopez Obrador ordered the slot cuts and cargo flight move citing oversaturation at the centrally-located AICM, which is undergoing renovations.

The president said that she had met with cargo airlines and they were content with flying out of the AIFA, though she recognized that some work had to be done to smooth out customs processing at the military-run airport.

In August, United Airlines UAL.O said that Mexican officials had informed U.S. airlines that “confiscated” slots at the AICM would be reinstated.