"Airport officials slam IATA for calling Mexico City runways risky"

Tuesday, August 17, 2004

Airport officials slam IATA for calling Mexico City runways risky
EFE News


Mexican air traffic controllers on Monday blasted the International Air
Transportation Association's critical declaration on the state of the
runways at the Mexico City airport.

"I don't know why IATA gets involved in technical questions when the
matter of runways is not within its jurisdiction," said Raul Campilla,
leader of the union representing the country's 690 air traffic
controllers.

In a letter last week, IATA warned the Mexican government that the state
of the Mexico City airport's runways pose a risk and urged authorities
to take steps to ensure the safety of travelers.

Campilla said IATA does not have the capability to evaluate the
conditions of the all runways across the world.

"IATA is no one to be evaluating the condition of runways ... It is the
agency that regulates the question of tickets on an international level
and the agency that regulates ticket-selling offices, but what does it
know about runways?" Campilla asked rhetorically at a press conference
Monday.

Campilla said the capital's airport runways are in "good" shape, noting
that they undergo different maintenance tasks throughout the year.

Nonetheless, he acknowledged that the fact the runways were built above
sewers poses a problem, since this leads to flooding after heavy rains,
which forces airport authorities to close the runways for hours.

In a letter last week to Mexican Transportation Minister Pedro Cerisola,
IATA chief Giovanni Bisignani said that his group "in the name of its
airline members, has notified the Civil Aeronautics General Directorate
and the Mexico City International Airport many times of the problems
deriving from the surface conditions of the landing and take-off runways
at Benito Juarez International Airport."

"So far, no solution to correct the problem has been implemented,"
Bisignani said.

The IATA official said that "this deficiency not only has an impact on
the safety of operations, but it also has a significant impact on the
operational efficiency of the airlines that fly out of or into Mexico
City."

Bisignani pointed to July 21, when 126 flights had to be delayed,
diverted or cancelled as a result of the problems cited in his missive.

Pilot and flight attendant unions have previously warned the government
about the dangers posed by the air terminal's location in a very
populous area of Mexico City. These groups have noted that in the event
of a crash, the situation could become catastrophic.


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