Member's Home Forums General Discussion Mexico Mexico Aeronautical & Regulatory Meetings with DGAC in Mexico CIty

Caribbean Sky Tours has been invited by the Director General of Mexico's DGAC to participate in a new process for re-defining aeronautical policies for the country. We are honored to have been given this opportunity to contribute and will be meeting with the DGAC in Mexico City next Wednesday to review this new program. We will post more once the meeting has been completed.

The meetings today went extremely well and were well received. The process now moves to the second stage where focus groups will take the recommendations made and get into more detail. We will keep everyone posted.

The Director General of the DGAC (Mexico’s civil aviation authority) invited Rick Gardner, Aviation Services Director of Caribbean Sky Tours and AOPA authorized representative, to participate in the development of new aviation policies for Mexico. This initial meeting is the first step in a series of ongoing actions to develop the new policies. Each presenter was allowed 10 minutes to present his topic so this first presentation was simply a top-line summary of the situation and recommendations. The process will then develop into more detailed meetings in the near future where specific problems and solutions are discussed and reviewed.

The meeting was held at the new international training center (CIIASA) at the aviation campus next to the Mexico City International Airport. In attendance at the meeting were directors from the DGAC as well as the Director General of the DGAC himself. Those presenting were the president of FEMPPA (Mexican Federation of Pilots), president and a number of members of APPAC (private pilots association), General Manager of Monterrey Del Norte airport, Owner of Aerotron FBO, General Manager of the International School of Professional Aviation and a number of other distinguished aviation professionals from the Mexican aviation industry.

The objective of the Caribbean Sky Tours presentation was to demonstrate the economic benefit of visiting general aviation to Mexico’s economy and the need to change Mexico’s policies to facilitate the arrival and grow this aviation segment.

The presentation included an analysis and breakdown of general aviation by number of aircraft and aircraft type. We also showed a socio-economic profile of general aircraft owners and pilots as well as showing the population of general aviation pilots by state. We then proceeded to quantify the potential economic benefit to Mexico based on published numbers as well as our own actual data. Finally, we reviewed many of the issues that visiting pilots face and the fact that there are other international destinations that compete for the international general aviation tourism traffic.
Our recommendations to the DGAC were:
1. To publish a statement declaring that Mexico does indeed wish to attract this important aviation tourism segment.
2. To create a specific department within the DGAC to handle general aviation affairs, including international, visiting GA. The Director of this department would have sufficient authority to enact changes to regulations that promote domestic and international general aviation.
3. To publish in a clear, unambiguous fashion that Mexico NO LONGER requires liability insurance issued only by Mexican insurance companies. This ambiguity has been leveraged by US flying organizations and Mexican insurance companies to make pilots purchase unnecessary liability insurance at exorbitant rates.
4. To create a cross-functional committee of federal agencies to establish clear guidelines for officials at all airports so that there is far greater transparency on what visiting pilots and passengers are required to do. These guidelines would be published in both Spanish and English so that pilots can have a document that they can refer to.

Our proposals were well received and accepted by the DGAC. We have been advised that we will bee meeting with working committees to get into the detail (we only allowed 10 minutes) and identify more specific action plans for addressing these issues. We will keep the members posted as to the developments of this meeting.

We have been asked once again by the Director General of the DGAC to come to Mexico City to review our proposals for new aviation policies for Mexico. The meeting is next Friday, December 10'th and we will report on what occurs.

I was asked by the Director General to attend a meeting this past Friday December 10, 2010 in Mexico City. Present was the Director General, Hector Gonzalez Weeks and all of his directors as well as the sub-director of Engineering. Also present were the president of FEMPPA, two members from APACC, a representative for Mexican flight schools, the Editor of Mexico’s leading aviation magazine and myself. In addition, there were two persons from “Monterrey Tech”, a leading technology university in Mexico who have been hired by the director general of the DGAC to coordinate the process of defining new aviation policies for Mexico. The meeting lasted all day.

This meeting was unique for several key reasons which I will summarize:

FAA CATEGORY 1 STATUS: There were multiple mentions of the process that they went through with the FAA to regain category 1 status. The DGAC directors were upbeat and they appeared generally pleased that the process had arrived at a positive outcome. During the meeting, the director general made reference to a number of learning experiences from the process with the FAA. One item that got their attention the us of internet based filing processes. They have committed to automating many of their procedures and making them available on-line by next September, 2011. It was not clear what process would be automated but I expect that it will be those applying to Mexican pilots and aircraft operators first.

Changes to Mexican aviation laws: The director general’s intent is to make recommendations based on our proposals and discussions to change Mexican civil aviation law. These recommendations will be sent to congress early next year. The “Monterrey Tech” group is charged with capturing our recommendations and presentations as well as the ample discussion in our multiple meetings so that a concise set of recommendations can be developed. Overall, the changes discussed were to finally recognize general aviation as unique from commercial aviation and to have a different and less stringent set of requirements than that of commercial aviation. The items we have been discussing for modification range from pilot licensing, airworthiness requirements, pilot currency requirements, medical certificates, annual inspection requirements and registration. The intent is to streamline, de-centralize and facilitate the acquisition, maintenance and operation of a private aircraft. The other intent is to expand civil aviation laws to better accommodate Light Sport aircraft, Experimental aircraft and Aerospace. We have been promised an opportunity to review the final proposed changes to the law before they are sent to congress.

Actions within the DGAC: The director general and his staff explained that they have undertaken an assessment of their staff at all DGAC offices in Mexico as well as headquarters staff. They have also elevated the hierarchical level of the licensing department within the DGAC and are placing greater scrutiny in that area. They are also taking steps to replace staff where necessary and to recruit and hire qualified and capable staff. They encouraged our group to continue to make them aware of issues so that they can investigate and take action as appropriate.

Cabotage: The issue of US registered aircraft being used in Mexico for illegal on-demand operations by both Mexican operators as well as US operators came up once again. There was overall consternation of the group. This continues to be a sore spot within the DGAC.

Needs of visiting general aviation: I indicated once again that we have concerns regarding existing procedures as well as any proposed changes that may occur as a result of the efforts to reign in illegal US registered aircraft operations. We discussed the need to clarify the Mexican insurance requirements as there a number of organizations who are profiting by selling liability insurance that is almost worthless in Mexico. Most pilots do not realize that the “special” Mexican insurance they are purchasing does not cover their hull, nor provides them with any legal aid, no bond and only covers the minimum required by law. Furthermore, the exclusion clauses in these policies are so broad and vague that they are very one-sided in favor of the Mexican insurance company. The Director General and the Director of Permits (Fernando Silva) both recognized that they have not moved quickly enough on this topic and have promised a response by the end of March.

406 MHz ELT’s: As part of the discussion above, I raised the issue of 406 MHz ELT’s. Apparently, the Director General has formed the opinion that 406 MHz ELT’s are not reliable and have a high failure rate. We discussed the other technologies that I had presented in prior presentations and their pro’s and cons’. The good news is that the sub-director of engineering and the Director (to whom he reports) were extremely open to renewing the dialogue and developing a final resolution on this topic before the current extension expires on December 31 of 2011.