Member's Home Forums General Discussion Mexico Mexico Aeronautical & Regulatory Mexico Ramp Checks

There has been some discussion on forums about increased ramp checks by Mexican Civil Aviation Authorities.

Generally speaking, I think it is a good idea to always have your documents in order and ready to present as requested to the Civil Aviation Authority of any country. We saw this publication too and also being based in Mexico, let me share what we are seeing.

The present Mexican government has eliminated the top several levels (Director General and down) of the Mexican Civil Aviation Authority (AFAC) at the central level and replaced them with former military personnel, many from the Mexican Air Force. Unfortunately, they have little knowledge of civil aviation. The new AFAC leadership has proceeded to replace the Comandantes (the top AFAC official at an airport) with more retired military personnel.

The Mexican Federal Police (Federales) were eliminated and replaced by the "National Guard" led and staffed by military personnel. These soldiers are at the airports and inspect arriving and departing aircraft

The Mexican Customs Agency has eliminated the civil servants who man the ports and replaced them with more military personnel. Mexico is one of the few countries who inspects luggage on DEPARTURE as well as on arrival from the country

The Mexican Immigration department is on the cusp of replacing their agents with military personnel as well

What we are seeing boils down to 3 issues
1) Lack of knowledge; We have had to educate the AFAC inspectors at the airport level at a number of airports on basic aeronautical topics such as: what aircraft require Type Ratings, where to find the Max Takeoff Weight (MTOW) of an aircraft, are Temporary Airman Certificates valid for international travel, etc.
2) Lack of coordination: The National Guard soldiers will make you unload bags for inspection on the ramp. Once they are done, they leave and then later customs shows up and requests the same thing. National Guard soldiers are requesting airman certificates, airworthiness certificates, passports, etc. and then mixing them up by inserting airman certificates inside passports, etc. All of this is followed by Immigration inspectors and then AFAC inspectors requesting many of the same documents. When multiple aircraft are being inspected, there is great opportunity for documents to not only get misplaced but interchanged between aircraft.
3) Lack of customer service. While customer service has never been high on the priority list for these types of agencies, the frustration from insufficient/inadequate training has created frustration on the part of these military personnel and sometimes manifests itself in unfriendly behavior

The present Mexican federal government has done away with many, many years of experience and knowledge by replacing all of these civil servants in these different agencies with military personnel. It will take time for these replacements to come up to speed. In the meantime, be patient and always check that you have received ALL of the documents that you were asked to present before departing the airport.

However, with regards to any heightened frequency of ramp checks, we have not seen it. We have contacted our representatives at the more popular airports in Mexico and they report nothing unusual taking place. So, maybe it is around the corner, it is misinformation, or something else. Nonetheless, always have your paperwork in order. If you have any doubts, ask us, we are happy to help. The best place and time to do this is while the airplane is still in your home country prior to your trip. Once you are on the ground in the foreign country the options become less and the consequences become worse.