The Challenge for Queretaro International Airport

By way of self-introduction to this interesting publication, I must say that for more than two decades I have been fortunate enough to be part of the aerospace industry and, more recently, the air transportation industry. Initially as part of the Queretaro government team that worked in the process of attracting the Canadian company Bombardier Aerospace and, later, as the person in charge of the process of creating the Aeronautical University in Queretaro (UNAQ), of which I was the rector for more than a decade. This Mexican institution of higher education, unique in its kind, was conceived to offer a wide variety of professional education and training courses to meet the development needs of operational technical personnel, middle management, university and postgraduate degrees, for the variety of industries and sub-industries that make up the aerospace and air transportation industry.

Now, at this stage of my career, I have the great opportunity, as well as the incredible professional challenge, to direct and further enhance the development of the Queretaro International Airport, an organization with legal and administrative peculiarities, but, above all, with a potential for growth and impact much greater than it has had throughout its almost 20 years of existence.

The Intercontinental Airport of Querétaro S.A. de C.V., (the company that operates the concession of the aerodrome located on 688.5 hectares bordering the municipalities of El Marqués and Colón, in the state of Querétaro), began operations on November 28, 2004. Conceived with the great vision of complementing the supply of commercial flights and cargo operations for the center of the country, it quickly incorporated connectivity to the United States, in addition to adding routes to destinations in the north of the country with which Querétaro has commercial and/or productive links. There is a relevant amount of data and statistics that position AIQ in a privileged place in the concert of the air transportation industry of this important region. Data that, for time and space purposes, I will share in my next collaboration. 

Today the International Airport of Queretaro (AIQ, its commercial brand) has more than 20 destinations including 5 international destinations to the United States and a variety of tourist and business destinations that have led it to evolve and position itself within the first fifteen airports nationwide and within the first three in terms of cargo movement in the country. 

By 2024 we plan to increase from 32 to 48 operations per hour. Currently, general aviation operations make up 45%, commercial passenger operations 35% and cargo operations 20%. However, this composition must change in order to increase the share of commercial passenger and cargo aviation. To this end, we are investing to increase the capacity of the current terminal and, in parallel, we are creating a project for a new terminal building with a capacity equivalent to the current one, which will begin operations in 2025. 

Finally, I would like to share with you that the title of this first installment of the collaboration, The challenge for the International Airport of Queretaro, is based on a deep reflection on the strategies and actions that will be implemented from this administration to achieve the maximum potential of the AIQ. It must be said that when I joined this incredible organization, I found a company with great results and an extremely professional team... but with some areas of opportunity. The first one was the lack of a Strategic Development Program that, without detriment to the existence of documents required by the regulations for the management and operation of airports in our country, does evidence the need to conceptualize and socialize projects that address organizational development, the incorporation of a vision of environmental, sustainable and governance (ESG) impact and others. I will talk about this in the following installments.