Imagine yourself in the following situation:

It's Christmas Eve and you're flying home on an international flight, expecting to see your family and loved ones as soon as possible. As you are about to land, the plane's pilot announces that, due to thick fog, it is impossible to reach the scheduled airport, and now must head to the nearest one. Imagine that Tijuana's International Airport was the original destination, but now your flight is being diverted to Mexicali's terminal, arriving at midnight, forcing you to take a bus to the airport, getting back to Tijuana at 5:00 a.m. Or worse still, imagine you being diverted to Hermosillo, Sonora, an airport notorious for its low quality service, adding to your bad luck.

So, after a while, you're told that the rest of your flight won't be available until the early morning (if Tijuana was just a stop in a longer trip). On top of this, you won't be reimbursed for any of the extra cost involved in diverting the plane, won't provide you with any food or water while you wait, no hotel room, nothing.

Unfortunately, this is a real life scenario regularly in Tijuana, and we think it's important for us to take a look at why this happens to the airport and how we can solve these problems.

Tijuana's International Airport is the fifth busiest airport in Mexico, just after the Mexico City, Cancun, Guadalajara and Monterrey airports. It's capable of handling up to 10 million passengers per year, and up to 360 daily flights. Aeromexico, along with Aeromexico Connect, use Tijuana's International Airport as a secondary connection and, since November of 2006, uses it to fly to Asia with three weekly flights to Tokyo and Shanghai.

Tijuana's Airport also functions as a transfer terminal for Volaris, the country's second largest airline as well as Interjet and VivaAerobus. And up until they ceased operation, it served Aero California, Aerolíneas Internacionales, Líneas Aéreas Azteca, ALMA de México and Avolar.

Tijuana is connected to Acapulco, Aguascalientes, Cancun, Chihuahua, Mexico City, Ciudad Juarez, Ciudad Obregon, Cuernavaca, Culiacan, Durango, Guadalajara, Hermosillo, La Paz, Leon, El Bajio, Los Cabos, Los Mochis, Mazatlan, Monterrey, Morelia, Oaxaca, Puebla, Rocky Point, Puerto Vallarta, Toluca, Morelia, Zacatecas, Shanghai and Tokyo.

We can say that we are proud to be an important business destination; that we are a very active and modern commercial region. Although much of our trade passes through the local border, we also depend on international trade with the rest of the world, but unfortunately, we cannot boast having "up to date" technology, if our international gateway, Tijuana's Abelardo L. Rodriguez airport, is not on par with other international airports. For example, Toluca is an airport suffering a problem similar to ours (lots of fog), but, what really sets us apart ? The answer, in fact, is the absence of the latest generation Advanced Instrumental Landing System established by ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization), a worldwide standard system that allows pilots to land 'almost blind'.

The system used in Toluca's International Airport is unique in Mexico. Since Toluca is located within the Lerma River wetlands's zone of influence, climatic conditions of the region often cause problems due to reduced visibility caused by the presence of regular, seasonal heavy fog.

Previously, this operational circumstance forced the airport's closure for morning flights, because the airport was required to provide a team of high-tech precision composed of an instrumental landing system to allow operations with no decision height and unrestricted runway visual range, called ILS Category II / IIIA, consisting of four components:

1.- Ground facilities:

Locator antenna. Approach lights Edge lighting, runway center line and contact area. Edge lighting, axis and stop bars on taxiways. Automated aircraft guide system, by turning on lights in front and rear lights off to progress. Automated Weather Observation System (AWOS). Measuring equipment of the runway visual range (RVR).

2.- The aircraft's onboard equipment is able to read output signals from land and operate the mechanisms used to descend land and run along the track to reach zero speed signals. From this moment on, driving the plane becomes the crew's job and is assisted by the track light and shoot system, as well as by trained airport personnel and a "Follow me" vehicle, which operates until the plane parks.

3.- Certified crews operate CAT II / IIIA. It should be noted that as the system category is higher, it will allow operating the minimum system requirements, although each category requires specific and appropriate characteristics for the aircraft, and specific training for the pilot.

Thus, Class I will allow the aircraft to not have autopilot, but it will requires a minimum visibility of 2,400 feet (or 1,800 if the track has adequate lighting), while Category III requires an automatic pilot on board, because the pilot will fly the plane until it parks, allowing landings with minimum visibility and cloud ceiling.

4.- Personnel qualified to participate in the management of the airport in operating conditions in CAT II / IIIA land. The system available in the Toluca International Airport was certified in December 2006 and is checked and calibrated twice a year by the Director General of Civil Aeronautics (DGCA).

If Tijuana is to be regarded worldwide as a source of opportunities in trade and investment, it's surprising that the Tijuana airport lacks the same technology present at Toluca. Is it not a priority for the Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico (Pacific Airport Group, the airport's operator) or SENEAM (the Decentralized Authority under the Ministry of Communications and Transport), whose mission is to "ensure, through navigation services, the safest and most efficient transportation of people and goods in Mexican airspace"?

Therefore, why hasn't the DGAC been asked for support in evaluating whether our airport should have the same or a better system than the one used at Toluca's International Airport.

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