Confusion still reigns at the International Airports here in Mexico regarding the Mexico APIS implementation. However, there is a growing acceptance that PRIVATE flights are included in the December 31, 2013 deadline despite what was published in the Mexican Federal Register and discussed in our earlier post.

Basically pilots have three choices:

1) Continue with business as usual and assume that because there is so much confusion, there is no way that the new rule can be enforced and pilots can wait until there is more official communication from the Mexican government. What the risk is under this scenario, we cannot say.

2) Utilize the services of a company that has the capability to submit a Mexican APIS.

3) Postpone your trip to Mexico

The fact that Mexico has rolled out a system with no public portal creates a very frustrating situation because it forces pilots to have to use "for profit" options for submitting an APIS manifest to be in compliance with Mexican law. While we would like to see this situation corrected, we also have to provide an option for our customers flying to/from Mexico in the short term as well as our customers on our upcoming Fly-Ins to Mexico. Therefore, as we stated earlier, we have contracted to be able to file Mexican APIS manifests for our customers so that we can provide them with the assurance that they are in compliance.

While some companies may find a situation like this very appealing for generating additional revenue, we do not. We feel that regulations and procedures of this type are bad for tourism to Mexico and bad for General Aviation in the long run.

In the meantime, we will do everything possible to work with the Mexican government and our customers on options that makes compliance a more reasonable and economical process for the General Aviation pilot wanting to visit Mexico.

Rick Gardner
Caribbean Sky Tours