Mr. Cánovas, to start with, I'd like to ask you to give our distinguished readership a brief overview on some of the most decisive figures of the Aeropuerto Internacional de la Ciudad de México, in terms of passengers, airlines and cargo.
Let's start with the number of passengers. In 1995, we moved 16 million passengers. We finished 1999, with 20 ½ million. In number of passengers we have been growing at a rate from 5 to 6 per cent yearly, so we have been growing quite a bit in comparison with other airports in the world. In the number of operations, we reached around 270 thousand operations. In this airport we only have cargo and commercial airlines, not general aviation because since 1994 all the general aviation operations moved to Toluca. We have a limitation in the number of operations per hour, 60 operations per hour with our current infrastructure. We may grow in the number of operations per hour up to 75 but we need to construct another runway and do some other things, for instance, increase our terminal buildings. In cargo, in tons, I don't recall the number moved by this airport, but in value of merchandise, it's the second spot in the country. The first one is Laredo as a customs movement. We are dealing with 44 passenger airlines and around 16 cargo airlines.
Have you reached your limits as an airport or do you still have enough capacity to increase those figures?
We need to very precise. From 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., we are absolutely full and then from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. In those eight hours, we are absolutely full, but we have room to bring more operations from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. During those hours we have an average of 30 operations per hour. That's why we may bring more airplanes and airlines but they are competing over the spaces we are assigning.
Bearing in mind the expected increase in air traffic for the coming years, is it more realistic to upgrade the facilities at this location or is it more likely, that a new airport will be built?
Both, in my point of view. It is necessary to construct another airport, for our present infrastructure will be absolutely clouded even if we grow with a third runway for the year 2014. We also need to grow this facility.
What is the present status quo of those plans?
The Mexican government, the Secretaría de Comunicaciones y Transportes and ASA, the former government organization in charge of commercial public airports in Mexico were doing a lot of studies about the location for the new airport for Mexico City and there are two spots that are heading this decision: Texcoco and Tizayuca. The Texcoco option requires for this airport to be closed, they cannot operate simultaneously because of the orientation of the runways. The Tizayuca option allows this airport to carry on its operations. Another option is to integrate in the same group the Puebla, Cuernavaca and Toluca airports under the same administration. That option will give more choices. For instance, you may send cargo to Puebla, some domestic flights too, some to Cuernavaca. We need to study it a bit deeper. The decision will not be taken by us but rather by the SCT.
As a result of the privatization process to meet today's profitability results, could you give us your opinion about the results of that process and how it affected this airport concretely?
The privatization process started in 1997. In 1995 the Congress passed the new airport's law and then in 96 started the Comité de Desincorporación. ASA, who was the former manager of the 16 public airports, was divided into five groups: the Sureste Group, which has its headquarters in Cancún and was the first group to be put into private hands; then followed the Pacífico Group in Guadalajara; and the last one was sold in April, Centro-Norte. The last one to be opened to the private sector, was this airport on its own because it represents 35% of the whole passenger movement in the country. ASA took the rest of the 35 airports. Those airports will remain in the government's hands. Up to this moment, this process in this airport hasn't affected us because we are still working, growing and doing our own things. We have not yet experienced, for instance, competition between the other groups. It is very easy to understand because Mexico is the most populated city in the country and it's the political, economic and social center of the country, different from USA, Canada or European countries where many cities have their own importance. It's like a big hub. The other groups haven't affected us because we are not a coastal airport such as Cancún. If we were in the coast we might be competing with Cancún or Puerto Vallarta.
But soon you will compete with other airports both national and internationally.
Yes, in that sense, I agree that we need to be prepared in order to be competitive on a world basis. In order to be competitive we are doing a lot of actions to increase the incoming business rather than airport or complementary services. Our objective is to increase the commercial income and then, keeping our total income, but not increasing those tariffs in order to become more competitive.
Could you describe us your plans to improve the customers service, security for the passengers, cargo capacity and what are your plans to attract more international airlines?
In customer services, the first things we have being doing since 3 years ago has been to modernize our facilities, the gates. Also improving the facilities of restaurants and stores even though we do not manage them directly but we press them to improve their premises. Another thing is to push some people to take their administrative offices to other places in the city so we may grow our commercial spaces. Things like the Europeans and some Americans are doing in their airports: Amsterdam, London Heathrow, Atlanta and many more. We aren't doing anything new but we are taking on account what others are doing and doing it well. One of the main objectives will be not to charge tariffs on airport services. But on the other hand, we have to balance because we have limitations on the number of operations if we remain the same. On the other hand, we have been improving with the help of authorities the services in customs and immigrations. About 5 years ago, if you were coming from South America or Africa, you needed to pass 5 checks and at least in 4 of them, you had to open and close your luggage each time, that's terrible. Nowadays, with the help of immigration and international health, and fitozoosanitary, you needn't even open your luggage. Next august, we are taking another step to be almost like other airports, where you have "Nothing to Declare" or "Something to Declare". So we are putting a lot of effort in facilitating our passengers their pass through the airport.
For the passengers, in terms of customer satisfaction, it's very important how you deal with transportation from the airport to the city. What have you done to improve the expected security standards?
First of all, five years ago what we did was to
ask our customers, airlines, aircarriers and passengers
themselves, their opinion. We found that passengers
were complaining about the lack of air conditioning,
about the sanitary services with very small bathrooms
(there was room just for you or your luggage, but
not for both). Then came the passengers' path through
the airport and then we arrived to the final point
that was land transportation. We made a survey finding
out who was offering the different kind of services:
taxi, buses, crew transportation, private transportation,
parking lots. From this census we reordered the
land transportation program. |
This meant taking all the taxis, making specific rules for this service, all taxis must be white and yellow with the plane logo, all the drivers must have their ID visible to the customer, all need to give us their data. We also asked the SCT to practice on all the operators the examinations: psychological, medical and anti-doping. Physically, we installed and constructed two terminals for the taxis, which are the only two places where you can ask for a taxi. In 1996 we also asked for the highway patrol help to put in order all the remaining people who didn't abide by our rules. Then, the bus transportation was also combed. We assigned places for each destination. We also established rules: exact times and schedules. And lately, and we hope that for next September, in order to insure the safety of our taxi passengers, we are going to implement a system that will read the driver's handprints, the car's number and the passenger's ticket, so we'll know who took what passenger to what destination and at what time. For instance, five years ago, we had eight problems with taxi passengers and we have not had one single problem this year with our taxis.
Will you use as well the surveillance satellite radar system?
That would be very good. We are taking steps in order to put this in place considering that each operator has his own taxi. For example, taxis cannot be older than 5 years old. Before all these rules, we had a lot of multicolor old cars. Nowadays, the drivers use a tie and have a good presentation, they have a fixed rate, etc.
This would be a remarkable achievement taking on account for the passengers and businessmen coming to visit Mexico but moreover it's important for businessmen to receive their cargo or luggage as quickly as possible. What are they improvements on this field?
In that issue, we are not responsible of the cargo movement, as airport managers, customs is responsible for this. These are private agencies that determine their processes. What we are involved in are the places: where the airplanes arrive, airport services received in the platform and also in the fiscal stocks (almacenes fiscales), they have limited the area where merchandise can stay while the paperwork is being processed. We are involved in those areas and we are arranging them in order to have more space.
I was referring as well on a technical level because highly advanced reliable technology is crucial for the running of a modern airport. Do you foresee any improvements concerning this matter?
Absolutely. As a matter of fact, I'm fighting (and I use this word because it's almost a fight every day) for the rules to be observed not as a government-run enterprise. When we arrived to this airport around 5 years ago, and I'm very keen on the system issue because of my professional background, I found 8 PCs to aviate, isn't it incredible? Answering your question, we are moving towards buying FTN, a system from Switzerland for the operational administration of an airport. We also looked at IBM's systems and others. But the one, which gave a better answer to our needs, was FTN.
In many American airports they place jetways (long tubes for passenger exit or entry). In this airport we need to accommodate all the planes from all the airlines on the 22 gates. The other positions have no gates and everyone wants gates because it's more efficient for the airport and much more comfortable for the passengers. So, the system gave us a better answer to our needs. It also has lights for plane parking and parking lights, ramp services and so on. I really want to buy it by the turn of the year.
This is interesting, as I wanted to mention the use of advanced technology as an example for international exchange of knowledge. For example, the Mexican airports that concluded worldwide partnerships with other airports are working strongly together with the companies you mentioned, for instance DamlerBenz, IBM. Do you have any plans to conclude a partnership with another international airport or to work with companies from the Asian market?
No, because as a government-owned enterprise, we have a way of doing things, we have a lot of limitations.
But this situation is about to change.
I hope so. I really fight because you are driving a business not a secretariat or ministry. That's why I agree absolutely with the privatization project. I am personally convinced that companies need to be run with at least some flexibility. It's the SCT that is in charge of the privatization process and there is a rule (and I agree) that we, as an airport cannot be in touch with anyone unless we have permission from the SCT.
How would you describe your contribution to the development of Mexico's economy, especially facing the recently signed free trade agreements with the EU, and the expected agreements with Singapore and Japan?
An airport here or anywhere in the world has a lot of impact on the region and in the economy. Here, in this airport, 25 thousand people work daily and not directly with us but in stores, restaurants, airlines, and authorities. It's a very important economic point. A study showed that for each indirect employee, there are another 7 employment. Those 7 also create other 12 job spots, like a side effect. Just multiply 7 times 7 times 12. If you also think about the whole aircraft industry and the airline industry, it's a lot, so it's very important and that's why the location of the new airport is also very important. Our main market is here in Mexico City so we need to take that on account. We are preparing for the years to come regarding the multilateral agreements in many ways. For instance, we are going to start the construction of a new module in our international terminal in September in order to have it ready by August 2001. In the first project, before the signature of the EU, we are thinking about six positions without anyone for white bodies. We changed that because we are supposing that more Jumbo 747 or Airbus 340 are coming to Mexico. If something comes from Asia, in our master plan for this airport, even the new airport is going to be constructed and we are very careful on those points. We are aware about what is going to happen in the next years and we are changing our way of planning that's very important. We are thinking of our airports exactly as you think in a private company. We have strategic plans, checking what the competitors are doing, what other airports are doing, what airlines are doing about equipment and routes and also our position in Central and South America. |
MEXICO CITY INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT