Member's Home Forums General Discussion Mexico Mexico Aeronautical & Regulatory Mexican Airspace Fees

Mexico has many particular requirements and procedures; one of them is the payment of Airspace Fees.

First, the regulations are not published in the Aeronautical Information Publication (AIP); they are published in the Mexican Tax Regulations.

Aircraft that land in a Mexican Airport will be expected to pay for airspace use along with the purchase of fuel; the cost of airspace use will be included in the fuel bill (If you do not refuel in Mexico, there is no need to pay for airspace).

However, aircraft that overfly Mexico without landing in a Mexican Airport, will be liable for airspace use, and must take the following into consideration:

• The cost will depend on the aircraft's wingspan and distance flown.
• An invoice will not be issued.
• Each Operator will be responsible for calculating and paying the corresponding fees, including any backtaxes and interest fees if the payment is not done in time.
• The payment must be made through a Mexican bank

If you have flown through Mexican Airspace in the last 10 years, you may have oustanding payments. Visit our Mexican Airspace service site to determine and pay your fees.

Let us know if you have any questions!

Unfortunately, the reality of how Mexican airspace fees are calculated and paid are anything but straightforward. We have been paying them for many, many years for our customers and every time we thought there couldn't be another surprise, there is. It is important to note that you ONLY owe Mexican fees if you fly through Mexican airspace and neither depart or land from a Mexican airport. Airspace fees are automatically charged when you fuel in Mexico so a flight to/from Mexico is handled when you fuel, EVEN IF YOU DO NOT FUEL. It is assumed that you fueled and nobody is checking to see if you really did.

INVOICE: Mexico does not issue a receipt, by law they are prohibited from doing so. Instead, they require all operators to "self-determine". The requirements for "self determination" are buried in Mexico's tax code and and in multiple publications from SENEAM and the Mexican Federal Register. Furthermore, the fee has to be paid in Mexico using a Mexican bank making it virtually impossible for anyone unfamiliar with the process to calculate and pay.

AIRSPACE FEES: Mexican airspace fees are calculated using a cost per kilometer rate times the distance flown in kilometers. The cost per kilometer rate depends on the wing span of the aircraft and the cost is fixed for a given range of wingspans and then increases for the next larger range of wingspans and so on. They do not increase linearly so a small difference between two aircraft wingspans can have a huge difference in cost. The official wingspans for aircraft models are also published in the Mexican Federal Register and everyone checks the Mexican Federal Register on a daily basis, right?

DISTANCES FLOWN: The distances flown are supposed to be based on the great circle distance from the point of entry to the point of exit. However....... SENEAM determines where those points are and it may not be what you calculate even if you were on an airway. In addition, if the distances between an airport pair e.g. KHOU/MPTO have already been published in the Mexican federal register, then that distance becomes the official distance for flights between those two airports regardless of the actual route flown, even if that distance is wrong.

MAKING PAYMENT: The fees must be paid using a Mexican Bank to the Mexican tax authorities by the 17'th of the month AFTER the flight took place. If these fees are not paid then a back tax (actualización) and interest (recargos) begin to accrue and are compounded monthly. If sufficient time goes by, your tail number and the name of the owner is published on a list in two national newspapers (which nobody reads) and if you still have not paid then the owner name and ALL the tail numbers related to that owner are added to a list wish is sent to all the Centers and airports in the country to be blocked from service.

GETTING BLOCKED: If your tail number has been added to the blocked list and you try to overfly Mexico you may be denied entry. We had worked with SNEAM to allow the first overflight to continue unimpeded to avoid any fuel related emergencies but to advise the crew that subsequent overflights would be denied. However, there have been so many profound changes within Mexico's civil aviation that I would not be surprised that they have gone back to denial of entry on your first attempt. If your tail number is on the list and you file a flight plan to Mexico they will gladly accept your flight plan but once you land you will need to get the fees paid if you would like to see your aircraft fly again.

ATC OVERTIME: In addition to airspace, Mexico also charges for ATC overtime using a similar "self determination" methodology. Those fees ARE NOT part of any other overtime fees paid at the airport.

BUYING A USED AIRCRAFT OR RE-REGISTERING: It is important to note that unpaid fees go along with a tail number. We have seen new aircraft owners be shocked to find that along with their new aircraft they also purchased unpaid fees which they are now required to pay. SENEAM does not care if they were incurred by another owner, they are yours now. If you re-registered your aircraft with a new tail number and that tail number was previously assigned to another aircraft that had unpaid fees you are in better shape. However, you will have to provide supporting documentation to demonstrate that your aircraft is physically different from the one that incurred the unpaid fees.

AIRCRAFT IN A TRUST: Beware if your aircraft is registered under a Trust. The Trust becomes the official "Owner" as far as SENEAM is concerned and all aircraft owned by that trust are all in the same pool. So, if any one of those aircraft has unpaid fees, then ALL the aircraft owned by that trust are liable. Therefore, if the owner (the Trust) has not paid the unpaid fees, then ALL the aircraft related to that trust are blocked. This has created problems for more quite a number of operators.

Beware of a service provider that requires you to provide a power of attorney (POA) to help you as you may be committing yourself to that company for all future services. Basically, you could be signing a blank check unless you put limitations on what powers you are granting with that POA and for how long.

If you want to know how much you owe for airspace and/or overtime, contact us and we will send you a template with instructions so that you can inquire on your own directly from SENEAM. You really DON'T need a third party to do that for you. If you do owe fees then you can decide what service provider you want to use to pay them without having to use a POA. We have developed an online payment system which allows you to pay them online at any time if you wish to use it.