Navy soon to take over Mexico City Airport

MEXICO CITY - The Armed Forces are preparing to take full control of Mexico City International Airport (AICM), which will now have two civilian airports under its responsibility.

The Santa Lucia airport in Zumpango, Mexico State, has been operated by the army since it opened a year ago. While Mexico City airport, which is totally saturated, is about to come under the full control of the navy.

It is worth mentioning that the Navy had already been in charge of security for more than a year. As soon as the announced presidential decree is published, it will be responsible for absolutely everything: from customs to cleaning the toilets, from immigration control to baggage handling.

"This airport, which handles four million travellers a month, will be a company within a military naval entity," explained its director, Vice Admiral Carlos Velázquez Tiscareño.

In contrast to the Felipe Angeles airport, where national guards are even the ones who ask for boarding passes, at Mexico City airport the only uniformed personnel are the 1,500 marines deployed since February 2022 on security duties.

Since the beginning of López Obrador's administration in December 2018, the military has been taking on more and more tasks: from security to customs and port control, from the management of nurseries to tourist trips to an island penitentiary. As well as the construction of million-dollar infrastructures such as the Tren Maya in the southeast or several airports.