The Mexican Military Is Taking Control Of The Country’s Airports.
Mexico will trust its Navy to solve corruption, smuggling, and mismanagement practices at several airports.
When traveling by air, there are probably a lot of questions that cross your mind. However, few travelers ask themselves how the airports they are transiting through are managed. Although airfields are usually run by private companies, sometimes with a stake held by the government, there are exceptions to this rule. Mexico, for instance, is preparing to hand control of several airports to the military.
Mexico’s receipt of airports’ successful management
Airports are an extremely complex reality to manage. Being the doors to cities and countries, the levels of safety and security threats are among the highest you can find. Therefore, it is sometimes necessary to come up with unorthodox strategies to ensure smooth operations and safeguard air travel.
In Mexico, for instance, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has officially handed over control of Mexico City Benito Juarez International Airport (MEX) to the country’s military to fight corruption and mismanagement practices that have been going on for long. Besides Benito Juarez International, the Mexican government is also planning to cede to the military control of about a dozen airports in the country, including Matamoros (MAM), across the borders with Texas, and Playa del Carmen (PCM) on the Gulf of Mexico.
The handover process started approximately a year ago when the Mexican navy took control of Mexico City airport’s security. Now, the military will progressively take charge of all other departments, from customs and immigration to baggage handling and cleaning.
Military control to fight smuggling and organized crime at Mexican airports
The main reason leading Mexico’s president to hand over complete control of Benito Juarez International to the military is to successfully tackle the airport’s problems of drug smuggling and illegal immigration.
The management change also aims to improve the condition of the airport’s infrastructure and traffic management, following a series of near-miss reported in recent years. With the military at the helm, President López Obrador hopes to improve the airport’s reputation, which repeated episodes of stolen luggage, schedule disruptions, and corruption-threatened business have severely damaged.
According to the airport’s director, Carlos Velázquez Tiscareño, Mexico City International will become “a company within a naval military entity”. However, the director is confident passengers will hardly notice the management change. Indeed, the only uniformed military will be the 1,500 marines responsible for safeguarding the airport’s security. The rest of the personnel will be civilians, although led by stricter rules aiming for more order and discipline.
To manage Mexico City International and the other Mexican airports, the navy will constitute a special company called Casiopea, which is expected to gain control of about a dozen airports by the end of 2024. The Mexican military also plans to start operating its own commercial airline by the end of this year.
Is military-led management the correct answer for Mexican airports’ issues?
Following the announcement of the military takeover of Mexico City airport’s management, aviation experts have started questioning whether this solution will be the right one to put a stop to the corruption and mismanagement issues experienced over the last few years.
Corruption levels at Mexican airports have indeed reached such a level that coded messages are reportedly sent using airports’ internal communication systems to prevent luggage from being held up for inspection, thus allowing drug shipments and smuggling of all kinds. For this and other reasons, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) downgraded the Mexican aviation safety rating in 2021, thus preventing carriers from further expanding their operations in the US.
Since February 2022, the navy’s takeover of Mexico City’s security has led to the shutdown of several illegal businesses inside the airport and reduced the number of stolen luggage. However, according to front-line workers at the airport, passengers continue to complain about delays and lost luggage.
Although a complete management takeover from part of the military could lead to significant improvements to the reputation of Mexico’s airports, Rogelio Rodríguez Garduño, an aviation law expert at Mexico’s National Autonomous University, underlined that the president’s decision is against international aviation recommendations that draw a clear line between military and civilian. According to Rodríguez Garduño, Mexican aviation needs more funds, training, and inspections to position itself in the global competitive scenario.
Source: Simple Flying
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