With FAA downgrade, Mexican airlines can’t add flights out of San Antonio

The FAA said Mexico fails to meet international safety standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organization, a United Nations body that oversees global air travel.

The FAA did not look at specific Mexican airlines in its safety review, only examining the role Mexican aviation regulators play in ensuring air safety in the country.

San Antonio Aviation Director Jesus Saenz Jr. said he’s optimistic that the FAA downgrade is just a temporary obstacle — that the ban on new flights to new Mexican destinations could be rescinded quickly.

“Mexico is a very attractive market for the city of San Antonio,” Saenz said. “We hope the situation gets resolved as soon as possible.”

Saenz said the continued shutdown of the Mexican land border, making flights the only way to get from Mexico to the U.S. for travelers, and falling coronavirus infection rates have helped spur air travel between the two countries.

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The ban on new flights comes as the number of passengers traveling to and from Mexico has been booming at San Antonio International. The San Antonio airport saw 74,583 international travelers in April, a 101.5 percent increase from the same month in 2019, nearly a year before the pandemic arrived.

Domestic travel continues to rebound from the COVID-19-induced slump, but it’s still lagging. The number of U.S. passengers was down 24.3 percent at San Antonio International in April from two years ago.

Rating cut

The FAA said the lowering of Mexico’s aviation rating from level 1, meaning it meets international aviation safety standards, to Level 2, meaning it doesn’t meet those standards, results from deficiencies in several areas.

An FAA spokesperson wouldn’t discuss the specifics of its findings, which started in October 2020 and went through February 2021. A ratings cut usually stems from aviation regulators falling short in inspection procedures, record-keeping, technical expertise, trained personnel and other areas.

In a statement, the FAA said it would help Mexican aviation authorities improve their safety oversight.

Mexico’s Communications and Transport Department suggested that low staffing due to the coronavirus pandemic may have played a role in the FAA decision. It said in a statement that the U.S. review was carried out in October, when Mexican aviation regulators were operating with only a quarter of its personnel on the job amid a major surge in COVID-19 cases.

“Despite this, the agency acted responsibly to take action on all the observations made by U.S. authorities,” the department said.

All three Mexican carriers that fly out of San Antonio International Airport say they maintain a strong safety record.

A spokesperson for Aeromexico said it’s important to note that the downgrade was aimed at Mexico’s civil aviation authority, not Mexican airlines.

“Aeromexico continues to maintain the highest international safety standards,” the spokesperson said.

The other two airlines, Volaris and VivaAerobus, said in separate statements the ratings cut was unrelated to their air operations.

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Only a handful of other countries do not meet the FAA’s top Level 1 safety standards and are prohibited from adding flights to and from the U.S. They include Bangladesh, Curacao, Ghana, Malaysia, the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States, Pakistan, Thailand and Venezuela.

Growth market

Air travel at San Antonio International Airport to Mexico has been growing quickly in the last year, primarily to Mexico City, Monterrey and Guadalajara.

Aeromexico added a third daily flight from San Antonio to Mexico City at the beginning of May, and VivaAerobus began twice-weekly service to Leon.

On Monday, the three airlines offered a combined 11 direct flights. In April 2019, San Antonio International only offered a handful of daily flights to Mexico.

A new airport marketing campaign calls the San Antonio facility “Texas’ Gateway to Mexico.”

Southwest Airlines and Sun Country Airlines, who fly to the beach resort of Cancun only from San Antonio’s airport, are not affected by the FAA order since they are U.S. airlines.

The fallout

Because of strong passenger demand, Aeromexico had planned to replace its 100-seat regional jet this month with a 130-seat Boeing 737 that would fly daily. But the carrier is prohibited by the FAA order from registering new jets in the U.S., so it’s stuck with the smaller plane.

Aeromexico had sold more than 100 seats for the 1:30 p.m. flight on most days last week, anticipating it would fly the larger aircraft. So the airline inadvertently oversold its flights, forcing dozens of travelers to re-book on other flights, according to San Antonio airport personnel aware of the situation.

The employees asked that their names not be used because they were not authorized to speak for Aeromexico.

Delta Air Lines, which owns 49 percent of Aeromexico, said it has been helping the affected Aeromexico passengers at San Antonio International.

“Delta teams in San Antonio are assisting a small number of customers on behalf of our partner Aeromexico with accommodations on other Delta flights to get them to Mexico City or their final destination,” a Delta spokesman said.

Aeromexico also has canceled new service to Mexico City that was scheduled to start on July 1 from Austin-Bergstrom International Airport because it is not allowed under the FAA order.

While Delta owns a large share of Aeromexico, it is also prohibited by the FAA order from selling Aeromexico tickets with Delta’s name on it, a practice known as code-sharing. The FAA order also ended Frontier Airline code-sharing agreement with Volaris.