Mexico City International Airport

Location

Located at the neighborhood of Peñón de los Baños within Venustiano Carranza, one of the sixteen boroughs into which Mexico's Federal District is divided, the airport is 5 km (3.1 mi) east from Downtown Mexico City and is surrounded by the built-up areas of Gustavo A. Madero to the north and Venustiano Carranza to the west, south and east. As the airport is located on the east side of Mexico City and its runways run southwest-northeast, an airliner's landing approach is usually directly over the conurbation of Mexico City when the wind is from the northeast. Therefore, there is an important overflying problem and noise pollution.

Origins

The original site, known as Llanos de Balbuena, had been used for aeronautical activities since 1910, when Alberto Braniff became the first to fly an aeroplane in Mexico, and in Latin America. The flight was onboard of a Voisin biplane. On November 30, 1911, President Francisco I. Madero, was the first head of State in the world to fly onboard of a Deperdussin airplane piloted by Geo M. Dyott of Moisant International. In 1915 the airport first opened as Balbuena Military Airport with five runways. Construction of a small civilian airport began in 1928. The first landing was on November 5, 1928, and regular service started in 1929, but was officially inaugurated on May 15, 1931. On July 8, 1943, the Official Gazette of the Federation published a decree that acknowledged Mexico City's Central Airport as an international airport, capable of managing international arrivals and departures of passengers and aircraft. Its first international route was to Los Angeles International Airport operated by Mexicana. Construction of Runway 05D-23I started six years later, as well as new facilities such as a platform, a terminal building, a control tower and offices for the authorities. The runway started its operations in 1951. On November 19, 1952, President Miguel Alemán opened the passenger terminal, which later became Terminal 1.

In 1956 the airport had four runways in service: 05L-23R (2,720m long, 40m wide), 05R-23L (3,000m long, 45m wide), with electric lights for night-time service; 13-31 (2,300m long, 40m wide) which had been built to relieve 14-32, to which residential areas had encroached too closely; and 5 Auxiliar (759m long).

1960s–1990s

On December 2, 1963, Walter C. Buchanan, former director of the Transport and Communications Department (SCT), changed the airport's name "Aeropuerto Central" (Central Airport) to "Aeropuerto Internacional de la Ciudad de México" (Mexico City International Airport).

In the 1970s, president Luis Echeverría closed the two remaining shorter runways (13/31 and 5 Auxiliar); on the land of 13-31 a social housing complex was built, Unidad Fiviport. leaving the two parallel runways. In 1980, the terminal was expanded to double its capacity, using a single large terminal rather than multiple terminals as in other airports. Ten years later in 1990, the mixed domestic/international gates were separated to increase the terminal's functionality, along with the separation of domestic and international check-in halls.

On November 24, 1978, the "Mexico" Control Tower began its operations; it has been in service since then.

The AICM has continually improved its infrastructure. On August 15, 1979, and after about a year of remodeling works, the terminal building reopened to the public; the airport continued its operations during the renovation, which improved passenger transit with better space distribution in walkways and rooms.

Due to constant growth in demand of both passengers and operations, on January 13, 1994, the Official Gazette of the Federation, published a presidential decree that prohibited general aviation operations in the AICM, which were moved to Toluca International Airport in order to clear air traffic in the capital's airport.

Renovations to the AICM continued and on April 11, 1994, a new International Terminal building was ready and operational. It was built by a private contractor according to a co-investment agreement with Airports and Auxiliary Services. In 2001, in order to further improve service to passengers, construction for Module XI started. This Module permitted eight new contact positions in the Airport Terminal, capable of receiving eight regular airplanes, two wide-body, or four narrow-body aircraft.

2003–2007 expansion

Because of the increasing traffic, president Vicente Fox announced the construction of a new, larger airport on 5,000 ha (12,000 acres) in the municipalities of Texcoco and San Salvador Atenco, but when local violent protests took place in 2002, the new airport was cancelled. Instead, to respond to the growing demand and aiming to position the AICM as one of the greatest in terms of quality, services, security, and operational functionality, on May 30, 2003, the Federal Government announced an update: an extension to the air terminal in order to widen its service capacity from 20 million to 32 million passengers a year. This program was part of the Metropolitan Airport System, promoted by the Federal Administration. The Communications and Transportation Ministry (SCT), Aeropuertos y Servicios Auxiliares (ASA) and AICM performed expansion and remodeling work on Terminal 1, over a surface area of 90,000 square metres (970,000 sq ft); 48,000 of which were new construction and 42,000 of which were remodeled. The renovations include new airline counters, commercial spaces and an elevator for people with disabilities, which improved the flow of passengers with domestic destinations.

Among other works performed in the international area, a long-distance bus terminal was built with connections to Puebla, Cuernavaca, Pachuca, Toluca, Querétaro and Orizaba. The new bus station has access to a food court and the international arrivals and departures area, as well as a pedestrian bridge that connects to "The Peñón de los Baños" neighborhood.

The airport was formally named after the 19th-century president Benito Juárez in 2006.

On November 15, 2007, Terminal 2 was opened, significantly increasing the airport's capacity. All SkyTeam members moved their operations to the new terminal, except Air France and KLM. It was officially inaugurated in March 2008, once the new road accesses and taxiways were finished. Terminal 2 increased the airport's contact positions by 40% and the operational capacity by 15%. The terminal was inaugurated by former President Felipe Calderón Hinojosa.

Lack of capacity and slot restriction

The airport has suffered from a lack of capacity due to restrictions on expansion, since it is located in a densely populated area. In 2014, Mexican authorities established and declared a maximum capacity of 61 operations per hour with a total of 16 rush hours (7:00 –22:59). Another issue with the airport is the limitation that its two runways provide, since they are used at 97.3% of their maximum capacity, leaving a very short room for new operations into the airport. Only government, military, commercial, and specially authorized aircraft are allowed to land at the airport. Private aircraft must use alternate airports, such as Lic. Adolfo López Mateos International Airport in Toluca, General Mariano Matamoros Airport in Cuernavaca, or Hermanos Serdán International Airport in Puebla.

Some analysts have reported that if the airport had grown at the same speed as demand, it would have served over 40 million passengers annually by 2010. Even with the inauguration of the new Terminal 2 in 2007, the airport would be ideally designed to serve around 18 million passengers per year, according to international standards for runway and terminal usage. Instead, the airport has increased the number of passengers from around 26 million passengers in 2008 to almost 39 million in 2015, at a rate of 16% per year.

New airport

The construction of a new Mexico City international airport was announced by Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto on September 2, 2014, who said that it would be emblemático, or a national symbol. The new airport will replace the current Mexico City International Airport, which is at capacity. It is to have one large terminal of 6,000,000 square feet (560,000 m²) and six runways: two that are each 4.5 kilometres (2.8 mi; 15,000 ft) long and four that are each 4 kilometres (2.5 mi; 13,000 ft) long. The architects are Sir Norman Foster and Fernando Romero, son-in-law of billionaire Carlos Slim and architect of the Soumaya Museum.

Construction will take eight years and depending on the source, is estimated to cost 120 or 169 billion Mexican pesos, about 9–13 billion US dollars. It will be built on land already owned by the federal government in the Zona Federal del Lago de Texcoco, between Ecatepec and Atenco in the State of Mexico, about 10 km northeast of the current airport.

The terminal is to be sustainable, aiming for a LEED Platinum certification.

Terminals

Mexico City International Airport has two passenger terminals. Terminal 1 is separated from Terminal 2 by the runways.

Terminal 1

Terminal 1 is currently the largest airport terminal in the Americas and the fourth largest in the world.

Terminal 2

Terminal 2 was built over a surface area of 242,666.55m² and has modern security systems, in accordance with international standards including a passenger traffic separation systems. The new facility will help AICM increase its capacity to 32 million passengers per year.

Air operations in the new facilities began on November 15, 2007, with flights by Aeromar and Delta Air Lines, and later AeroMéxico, Copa, LAN and Continental Airlines. Terminal 2 was formally inaugurated by former Presidente Felipe Calderón Hinojosa on March 26, 2008.

These projects were done without affecting airplane takeoffs and landings, and will help Mexico City International Airport offer better services, and respond to the growing demand of passengers and operations in the coming years.

Terminal 2 now houses all Aeroméxico flights out of the airport, becoming the airline's main distribution center. Although the terminal was intended to be served by all-SkyTeam member airlines, Air France and KLM decided to remain at Terminal 1.

Other facilities

Aeropuertos y Servicios Auxiliares, a government-owned corporation that operates airports in Mexico, has its headquarters on the airport property., Aeropuertos y Servicios Auxiliares. The Aeromar headquarters are located in Hangar 7 in Zone D of the General Aviation Terminal of the airport. Aviacsa had its headquarters in Hangar 1 in Zone C, but ceased operations on May 4, 2011.

Airlines and destinations

The airport connects 52 domestic and 50 international destinations in Latin America, North America, Europe and Asia. Aeromexico serves the largest number of cities from any Latin American hub (80), 46 domestic and 34 international. Most prominent foreign airlines are United Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and Avianca Holdings. Aeroméxico/Aeroméxico Connect operates the most departures from the airport followed by Interjet, Volaris, and Aeromar. Aeroméxico also operates to the most destinations followed by Interjet. In peak season, Iberia, Lufthansa and Air France operate the most trans-Atlantic flights (28 flights per week) with nonstop service to Madrid, Frankfurt, Munich and Paris.

Passenger airlines

This table lists passengers flights served with a nonstop or direct flight with no change of aircraft carrying passengers originating in Mexico City according to the airlines' published schedules, unless otherwise noted.

Other Services

In addition to the scheduled airlines above, Mexico City airport is used by some further airlines for chartered flights including:

Cargo Airlines

As of January 2016, Mexico City airport is served by 19 cargo airlines flying directly to Europe, Central, North and South America, Middle East and East Asia. The following airlines operate the scheduled destinations below.

Airlines providing on-demand cargo services

Traffic statistics

In 2016, Mexico City International Airport moved 41,710,254 passengers, making it the busiest airport in Latin America in terms of total passengers. It registered a year-to-year increase of 8.5% and 72% since 2010. It also registered the largest number on net traffic in 2016, with more than 3.2 million passengers.

In terms of international passengers, it was the third busiest airport in Latin America with 14,056,083 passengers, behind Panama City and Cancún and the second busiest in Mexico after Cancún.

The airport is the busiest in Latin America by aircraft movements with 24% more operations than Bogotá-El Dorado and 44.65% more than São Paulo-Guarulhos. It is the 15th busiest airport in the world in terms of aircraft departures. In 2016, the airport handled 448,147 aircraft operations, an average of 1,227 operations per day.

Regarding cargo, the airport is also the busiest in the country and the second busiest in Latin America, after El Dorado International Airport in Bogotá. During 2016, it moved over 483,433.40 tons, an annual increase of 8.17%. The net growth of 36,000 tons was the biggest in the region.

Inter-terminal transportation

Terminal 1 is connected to Terminal 2 by the Aerotrén monorail system in which only connecting passengers with hand baggage are allowed to use with their boarding pass. Technical and cabin crew can also use it. The distance between the terminals is 3 km (1.9 mi). and the Airtrain's speed is 45 km/h (28 mph). Also there is a land service between terminals called "inter-terminal transportation". These buses are located at entrance no. 6 of Terminal 1 and entrance no. 4 of Terminal 2.

Metro and bus services

Terminal 1 is served by the Terminal Aérea Metro station, which belongs to Line 5 of the subway, running from Pantitlán station to Politécnico station. It is located just outside the national terminal. Also, trolley bus line G runs from the bus stop next to the Metro to Boulevard Puerto Aéreo station 1.7 km (1.1 mi) away, allowing transfer to Metro Line 1 (one can also take line 5 to Pantitlán and change to line 1, which is a geographical detour). Terminal 2 does not have any Metro station, but is a 700 m (2,300 ft) walk from Pantitlán served by Metro lines 1, 5, 9, A and numerous local buses.

Terminals 1 and 2 have two land terminals operating 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Different bus lines operate from here [1], and provide continuous transportation services to the main cities located around Mexico City, such as Córdoba, Cuernavaca, Pachuca, Puebla, Querétaro, Tlaxcala and Toluca.

Metrobús

In late 2010, former Head of Government of the Federal District Marcelo Ebrard announced a plan to build a new Metrobús Line 4 that would run from near Buenavista Station in the west of the city towards Mexico City airport. Construction on Line 4 started on July 4, 2011. The plans for Line 4 include a two step construction process with the first 28 km (17 mi) operational segment to be built between Buenavista and Metro San Lázaro. An extension provides travel between San Lázaro and the airport. The line opened on April 1, 2012.

Authorized taxis

Taxis are in operation in Terminals 1 and 2 and there are two models of service: Ordinary service in a sedan type vehicle for 4 passengers. Executive service in 8 passengers vans. At present there are 5 taxi groups in operation. These are the only taxis authorized by the Ministry of Communications and Transport (SCT) of the Federal Government.

Accidents and incidents