report profits of 490 million pesos – El Financiero

The AIFA, however, still has to make progress in attracting passengers and positioning itself as a support for the capital’s airport, highlights Fernando Gómez Suárez, an analyst in the airline sector.

The airport at military air base number 1 continues its maturation, since its installed capacity would allow it to attract at least 19 million passengers annually.

Subsidies continue

Although the Felipe Ángeles International Airport achieved break-even and profits with a margin of just over 15 percent, This military company continues to receive subsidies and transfers.

In the first trimester, The aid through the budget was 364.8 million pesos.

Furthermore, for this year, the government approved the largest subsidy item for this airport so far in operation: 1.5 billion pesos, the same figure that was assigned for the operation of the airport. Mexico City International Airport (AICM).

By the end of this year, This air port will accumulate subsidies for 3,966 million pesos.

To meet its expenses, the Santa Lucía airport needs a little more than 1,700 million pesos annuallya figure that would need just over 5.6 million passengers leaving from AIFA to be financially sustainable, not counting the services charged to airlines for different maneuvers, overnight stays, parking, among others.

The consolidation of the system, in which the Santa Lucía air port plays a primary role due to its ability to reduce saturation in the center of the country, should be a priority for the government, estimates Ricardo Bothelo, general director of the Latin American and Caribbean Air Transport Association (ALTA).

It costs 605 each passenger

Between its inauguration and the first quarter of 2024the airport promoted by the 4T received 2,831 million pesos of subsidieswhich allowed it to operate under the direction of the army.

However, the Santa Lucía airport not only did not generate, for 21 months, the necessary resources to remain in operation, but, for each passenger who used the air port, The Treasury had to spend 605 pesos on average budgetthis according to a review of the financial statements carried out by this newspaper.

In that sense, the treasury’s contribution to cover the AIFA deficit has been decreasing as new routes are announced: In 2022, the government had to pay an average of 1,453 pesos for each traveler who used the air port, while, By 2023, that cost dropped to 431 pesos. For the first quarter of this year, the cost for each passenger was 325 pesosaccording to information from the income statements obtained by El Financiero.

During its operation, in addition, the AIFA accumulates a deficit in its finances of 1,498 million pesos, which is why it has had to survive thanks to the transfers ordered through the Federation Expenditure Budget.

In that same period, The airport has had an influx of 4.6 million passengersof which, about 95 percent are domestic travelerswho have paid an average of 283 pesos in Airport Use Fee, an insufficient income until the first quarter of this year.

For Fernando Gómez Suárez, an independent analyst of the airline sector, the need for mass passenger transportation continues to be the main axis to test whether the AIFA can serve as a complement to operations in the center of the country.