While DHL prepares its move to AIFA, this is what FedEx and UPS say

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While the DHL company is already preparing its bags to move to the Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA), other companies are still waiting on the initiative of the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador that seeks to eliminate cargo flights from the International Airport of the City of Mexico (AICM).

The American company FedEx indicated in a position sent to Forbes Mexico that they are currently watching the evolution of the matter; without specifying if they already have plans on their change to AIFA or another terminal.

“We are very attentive to the official evolution of this matter. FedEx remains focused on providing the best possible service to our customers and will continue to connect the center of the country with the other 220+ countries and territories in our global network and with other parts of the country,” the company said.

Meanwhile, the UPS company told Forbes Mexico that “the requests of the industry in general, as well as of its members, to which we belong, are included in the communications of the National Chamber of Air Transport (CANAERO) on this subject”.

Last week, CANAERO said that sending these flights hastily to other terminals would affect the supply chain, in addition, if the measure is carried out, it would put the safety of operations at risk and would be unattainable in the time established by the authority.

According to the agency, for its members to achieve complete migration to other airports within a period of 90 business days is unattainable and would put the security of air cargo operations in the country at risk, since the industry requires a minimum of 360 days. natural to do it.

Recently, the Colombian Avianca explained that the operational restriction of exclusive cargo transportation at the Benito Juárez airport will cause the volume of cargo transported by its planes to lose efficiency and therefore competitiveness towards Mexico due to the longer time and costs in its connection, even, estimate an impact of 16% on their income in this area.

According to CONAMER it is probable that this item decreases the degree of complementarity to the transport of passengers to and from the capital of the country, especially when the operations are considered in wide-cabin aircraft.

“Some effects of the restriction on this cargo will be the increase in costs of air transport and storage of this cargo, increase in transit times in Mexico City, greater risk of damage or loss of cargo and merchandise due to additional handling and terrestrial transportation that this implies, etc. In our case, the impact is close to 16% of the income from cargo,” the Colombian says.

Therefore, Avianca asks the authorities to extend the transition period to at least 1 year to adjust the processes and mitigate the impact on the segment; Mechanisms are sought to exempt cargo that must be transported by land between the AICM and AIFA airports from import/export processes due to international connection.

Likewise, measures are implemented to expedite the customs processes that are necessary, guarantee an improvement in the times and processes that require physical inspections of the cargo; Eliminate gamma rays as this slows down the processes and has already been done at the source.

Meanwhile, Air France-KLM explained to CONAMER that moving its cargo operations to a new airport jeopardizes its business model in Mexico, since they have strong commitments to their customers to provide their solution at the AICM and have also invested significantly in its Mexico Cargo Handling warehouse in the last 15 years.

“In 2022, 100 employees have been hired, and cargo operations account for more than 50% of our total revenue… It is also important to mention that our cargo operations are deeply linked with passenger flights, and we have strong synergy and joint organization. within the AICM. Operating at two different airports for passenger and cargo activity would cause confusion and additional costs in volume such that they could compromise the viability of our cargo operations to Mexico”,

Estafeta indicated that a transfer of its operations from the AICM to the AIFA would imply a direct and immediate disbursement of at least 100.5 million pesos to start work on this new air terminal.

Yesterday Tuesday, López Obrador said that DHL will fully migrate its operations to the Felipe Ángeles International Airport towards the end of February, where he himself will witness the landing of the cargo planes.

Last December, the CEO of the company in Mexico, Antonio Arranz, announced that they would work in the Felipe Ángeles together with the firm JC JFK Cargo.

“We are not one of the winners of the warehouses, we have a partner, we are going to work with the partner, we are seeing how, but there are still many things to do before someone can say that they can land a plane and be ready”, he commented.