The Mexican government has suddenly found the money to increase the budget of its civil aviation authority by 40 percent after the FAA downgraded the nation’s airlines to its lowest safety rating last week. The government has freed up $7.5 million to hire 180 safety inspectors and beef up English training for pilots in light of the action. The downgrade puts Mexico in the same league as Bangladesh, Pakistan, Venezuela and Thailand in terms of regulatory environment and enforcement. The practical result is that Mexican carriers can continue to operate the flights they do now but they can’t add any and Aeromexico’s codeshare with Delta and Volaris’ with Frontier are suspended.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/mexico-beefing-up-oversight-after-faa-downgrade