While some countries might limit what a pilot can bring into a country, the most notorious for this has been Mexico. There are two issues at play here.

The first is that in Mexican Customs law there is not a very clear definition between private and commercial (airline) operations. Basically, a pilot is not allowed to bring anything into the country other than personal items sufficient for the number of nights of their stay assuming that they will be holed up in a hotel somewhere awaiting their flight back to where they came from. After a lot of effort, Mexican Customs guidelines were eventually updated to allow an owner-pilot who could prove ownership of the aircraft they were flying to have the same rights as a passenger for bringing items into the country. Even then, customs officials at most airports are still unaware of this. If the aircraft is in the name of a corporation, then the Private Operations Letter is important to have and it should clarify that the pilot is in fact the owner of the company and of the aircraft.

Unfortunately, this leaves professional pilots in a quandary and there have been totally absurd extremes of how this has been applied which would be funny if they had not been so unpleasant for those involved. What we recommend to professional pilots who want to bring in sports equipment or anything other than their clothes and personal items is to ask a passenger to bring them in (declare) for them. The crew can then recover the items on the other side of the customs inspection point.

The second issue is that the present Mexican federal government has been militarizing the country. The old civilian Federal Police (Federales) are no more, they have been replaced by the "National Guard" which is comprised of primarily military staff. While technically still a civil entity they are present at all airports in Mexico and they often intervene during aircraft arrivals and departures where they demonstrate their limited knowledge over civil aviation affairs. Next came Civil Aviation. The former DGAC (now AFAC) was "updated" whereby the top 3 levels of this civil aviation organization were terminated and former Mexican military (primarily Mexican Air Force) were brought in to replace them. That means that the Director General and the next two levels down are new to civil aviation. They have since been replacing the comandantes at many airports and some inspectors with former military as well. Unfortunately, their lack of knowledge about civil aviation has been glaringly apparent in a number of instances. The latest step has been the militarization of Mexican Customs whereby hundreds (possibly thousands) of civil servants were terminated and replaced by active military.

While it appears that for the moment the more popular destinations in Mexico have been relatively spared from the effects of these changes, we have witnessed firsthand at other international airports in Mexico where both domestic and international arrival and departure processes can be somewhat overwhelming if not downright unpleasant.

CST Flight Services (Formerly: Caribbean Sky Tours)
www.cstflightservices.com