The Santa Lucia International Airport (NLU/AIFA) was inaugurated today, with the objective of decompressing the congested Mexico City International Airport (MEX/AICM). To date, four airlines have confirmed their operations at AIFA with up to twelve flights per day between take-off and landing.
The Felipe Angeles International Airport will have a capacity for almost 120,000 air operations and twenty million passengers per year. Its terminal has 384,000 m2 of covered space with twenty-seven concourses. The check-in sector has one hundred conventional counters and fifty self-service counters, as well as twenty automatic baggage drop-off stations.
See also: The first commercial flight took off from Mexico City’s new Felipe Angeles International Airport
On the airside, AIFA has two runways of 4,500 meters in length, separated by 1,600 meters, allowing simultaneous take-off and landing operations. The apron has 28 contact parking positions, 12 remote, and 5 open apron positions. The cargo apron has 11 positions, and the executive aircraft apron has 26 positions. In addition, there is a sector with a parking capacity for 28 helicopters.
Despite its size, only four airlines have confirmed their operations, with two flights a day to six destinations by Aeromexico Connect, Viva Aerobus, and Volaris, and one flight a week by Conviasa.
The first connections
- Aeromexico Connect: Merida (MID) and Villahermosa (VSA) on Embraer 190 aircraft, with one daily flight each.
- Viva Aerobus: Guadalajara (GDL) and Monterrey (MTY) in Airbus A320 aircraft, with one daily flight.
- Volaris: Cancun (CUN) and Tijuana (TIJ) in Airbus A321 and A320 aircraft respectively, with one daily flight each connection.
- Conviasa: Caracas (CCS), Venezuela, in Airbus A340-300 aircraft, with two weekly flights operating on Tuesdays one way and departing from AIFA on Wednesdays.
According to information obtained by Aviacionline through Cirium, it will have an offer of up to 13,888 seats per week, meaning that AIFA will serve 1,984 passengers per day or 569,408 travelers until December 31, 2022.
In terms of monthly seat offer, Volaris will be the leading company with 41.1% of the share, followed by Viva Aerobus with 36.3%, Aeromexico with 19.3%, and Conviasa with 3.3%.
According to the announcement made by Lopez Obrador, President of Mexico, Delta Air Lines could be the next airline to use AIFA. The local Aeromar, TAR Aerolineas, and even a resuscitation of Interjet are in the plans to use the facilities, but for the moment none of the companies have given an official statement.
