Mexico City, Mar 21 (EFE).- The possible cabotage authorization in Mexico, which would allow foreign airlines to operate domestic flights, would put Mexico’s connectivity at risk, the Latin American and Caribbean Air Transport Association (ALTA) warned on Tuesday. ).
“Mexico is facing a discussion of critical importance for the future of air transport in the country,” the association acknowledged in a public statement.
An initiative sent by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador that promotes cabotage in Mexico is under discussion in the Mexican Congress, although recently legislators and the Mexican government itself decided to extend their analysis due to a series of warnings from the Mexican airline industry.
ALTA pointed out that this measure known as cabotage is only implemented in situations in which the country does not have connectivity, there is a market failure or in the case in which there is not a strong airline industry in the country.
In these three cases, “it is not the case of Mexico,” said the association.
He recalled that in Mexico there are 220 routes operated by eight local airlines that serve its 32 states.
“Mexico is an extraordinarily connected country that, just in 2022, broke a record in the movement of passengers with more than 107 million, of which more than 50% moved within its territory,” he said.
In addition, ALTA stressed that even Mexico has more air operators than, for example, Brazil, which has 230 million inhabitants and a strong economy where, in fact, the Law prohibits the practice of cabotage.
He also pointed out that materializing cabotage is not a measure related to lowering the prices of plane tickets, but rather a technical aspect that impacts air connectivity, security, among others.
ALTA also recalled that there are only 31 countries in the world where this practice is allowed.
“Contrary to what it may initially seem, allowing cabotage is an extremely aggressive measure that weakens the local industry and ends up harming the passenger, the movement of cargo and, consequently, the country in terms of tax revenue, job creation and the number of routes that would be reduced”, explained ALTA.
In this sense, José Ricardo Botelho, executive director of ALTA, asserted that in Mexico there is effective and aggressive competition between operators that results in more and better options for users.
In contrast, Botelho considered that enabling cabotage would allow airlines from other countries to capture domestic market shares without investing in the country, in its connectivity and in job creation.
He explained that cabotage causes foreign airlines to focus especially on the main and profitable routes “with vague marginal prices, displacing local operators that generate investment and jobs in the country, even in remote places and destinations whose routes are not so profitable.” .
“As an organization that brings together more than 155 companies in the aviation ecosystem, we make ourselves available to the Mexican authorities to contribute best practices to their technical analysis in the mutual interest of caring for and promoting the country’s competitiveness, connectivity and increasingly and better transportation options for Mexicans”, concluded the ALTA executive.
Airlines such as Aeromexico, Voaris, Viva aerobus and even the National Chamber of Aerotransports (Canaero), which integrates 45 members including airlines, cargo companies, air taxis and service providers, among others, have expressed themselves in this vein.
