Member's Home Forums General Discussion Mexico Mexico Airports MMUN - Cancun Meetings with ATC in Cancun to address concerns

We had another productive meeting with the management of ATC in the Cancun-Cozumel area. The two major topics covered were procedure for flying from the Playa del Carmen airport to Cozumel as well as the design of the TCA around Cancun and Cozumel.
To address the concern of ATC regarding aircraft departing from runway 11 at the Playa del Carmen airport (PCE) bound for Cozumel that are not in radio contact and could interfere with the final approach course to the Cozumel airport. While the TCA around Cozumel extends 10 Nm from the Cozumel VOR to the surface, the ATC management have agreed to establishing a new procedure which allows departing aircraft to continue eastbound without having to make an immediate right or left turn to remain outside the TCA until establishing radio contact. Aircraft departing runway 11 at PCE will maintain runway heading and climb to 1,500’ while attempting to establish radio contact with Cozumel tower. If unable to contact the tower due to frequency congestion, aircraft will continue on the same route until reaching the northwestern most point of Cozumel island and then turning south towards the airport. This will allow aircraft to continue their trajectory towards Cozumel without wasting time and fuel loitering outside the TCA waiting to establish radio contact. This route parallels the approach path to Cozumel but is displaced about 4 Nm to the north of the final approach course to runway 11 in Cozumel.
During the meeting, we also discussed how the floor of the Cancun-Cozumel TCA extends from 1,500 out to a distance of 50 Nm from the VOR of each airport. This effectively creates an enormous block of controlled Class D airspace that is 130 NM in length and 100 Nm in width with a base of 1,500 MSL. The consequences of this airspace design is that it restricts departing VFR aircraft from making ascents when departing airports underneath this airspace. The ATC management has agreed to pursuing a total re-design of this airspace with a “stair-step” increase in the floor of the TCA with increased distance from the airport. The resulting airspace would look similar to Class B airspace designs in the USA and other TCA’s in Mexico. By freeing up this Class D airspace which is not being used anyway, VFR aircraft could begin ascents for higher altitudes without requiring clearances from Cancun approach thereby avoiding flight in turbulence or into clouds while waiting to establish communications and obtain a clearance.