Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador says he wants cabotage – the practice of allowing foreign airlines to operate domestic service in a country – to sabotage high domestic flight prices in the country.

Currently the practice, which for example would allow a Canadian airline to fly from Cancun to Mexico City, is currently prohibited by Mexican law.

“Let’s open (aviation) up to competition,” said López Obrador Tuesday. “That’s democracy. Let foreign airlines come in… so that they can operate flights inside the country.”

The proposal would fly in the face of López Obrador’s push to make Mexico self-sufficient, but the president wants to lower domestic airfares and bring service to smaller cities that lack flights.

The president is also eager to get more airlines to fly into the new airport he ordered built at a former air force base just north of Mexico City; that terminal is currently under-used.