Mexico City Airport Guide: High Altitude Hub of Aeromexico
Mexico City Airport sits 2,230 metres up and handles around 45 million passengers a year. Terminals, runways, routes, transport and spotting explained.
By The Aviation Hub
6 min read
Updated October 20, 2026 
Benito Juarez International Airport sits inside the eastern suburbs of the Mexican capital, barely 3 miles (5 km) from the historic centre. It is the busiest airport in Mexico and ranks among the three largest in Latin America. Mexico City Airport handled around 44.6 million passengers in 2025, a slight fall on the previous year as slot caps bit and traffic shifted to the new field at Santa Lucia.
Mexico City Airport at a Glance
The IATA code is MEX and the ICAO code is MMMX. The field lies at 2,230 metres (7,316 feet) above sea level on the drained bed of Lake Texcoco, which makes it one of the highest major airports in the world. Two parallel asphalt runways serve two terminals linked by an automated people mover. The Mexican Navy owns the airport, and the state company Grupo Aeroportuario de la Ciudad de Mexico operates it.
Aeromexico and its regional arm Aeromexico Connect run their main hub here. Volaris and Viva, the two large Mexican low cost carriers, also base aircraft at Mexico City Airport, and Magnicharters treats it as a focus city. Traffic peaked at just over 50 million before the pandemic. Live flight information and parking rates are on the airport’s official website.
A Short History of Benito Juarez
Aviation on the plains of Balbuena dates from 1910, and in 1911 President Francisco Madero became the first head of state anywhere to fly in an aeroplane. A military airfield followed in 1915 and a small civil airport in 1928. The airport was formally inaugurated on 15 May 1931 and gained international status in 1943. The present Terminal 1 has been in use, in ever expanding form, since 1952.
The name changed from Aeropuerto Central to Aeropuerto Internacional de la Ciudad de Mexico in 1963. The dedication to Benito Juarez, the reforming president of the 19th century, came later. General aviation left for Toluca in 1994 to free up space for airline traffic.
Terminal 2 opened in 2007 and gave Aeromexico a modern base, with Pier L added in 2020. Two attempts to replace the airport entirely failed. A site at Atenco was abandoned in 2002 after violent protests by farmers, and the partly built airport at Texcoco was cancelled in 2018 after a referendum. Mexico City Airport therefore lives on in a location that planners have been trying to leave for decades.
Runways at Mexico City Airport
Two parallel asphalt runways run northeast to southwest. Runway 05L/23R is the longer at 3,952 metres (12,966 feet) and Runway 05R/23L measures 3,900 metres (12,795 feet). Both are 45 metres wide. The pair sit less than 300 metres apart, far too close for independent parallel operations, so controllers effectively run them as a single runway with staggered arrivals and departures. That geometry is the root of the 61 movement hourly cap.
Altitude is the other defining factor. At 2,230 metres the air is thin, so take off rolls are long and payloads on hot afternoons are restricted even on these generous lengths. A Boeing 787-9 bound for Europe or Asia uses most of the available pavement.
The usual flow uses the 05 runways, with arrivals crossing dense city districts to the southwest at low level. Volcanoes rise above 5,000 metres to the southeast and shape every departure procedure. The 1979 crash of Western Airlines Flight 2605, which landed on a runway closed for works in fog, remains the most serious accident in the airport’s history.
Terminals and Airlines
Terminal 1 is a long, curving building on the northwestern side of the field and is the older and busier of the two. Volaris, Viva and Magnicharters use its domestic halls. Most foreign carriers also operate from it, including United, American, Air Canada, Lufthansa, Air France, KLM, Iberia, British Airways, Emirates, Avianca and LATAM.
Terminal 2 sits on the opposite side of the runways and belongs in all but name to Aeromexico. The SkyTeam carrier and Aeromexico Connect fill its gates, joined by partners Delta and Copa Airlines. Pier L, the 2020 extension, added contact stands for the flag carrier’s growing 737 MAX and 787 fleets.
The Aerotren people mover links the two terminals airside but is open only to ticketed passengers and crew. Cargo moved almost entirely to Felipe Angeles International Airport after a government decree in 2023, so freighters are now rare at Mexico City Airport.
Routes and Destinations
Domestic flying dominates by volume. Cancun, Monterrey, Guadalajara, Tijuana and Merida were the five busiest routes in 2025, each with departures from early morning to late evening on Aeromexico, Volaris and Viva.
Internationally, Madrid, Los Angeles, Bogota, Houston and Miami lead the table. The United States takes the largest share of foreign traffic, with dozens of daily flights to Texas, California and Florida. Aeromexico flies long haul to Madrid, Paris, Rome, London, Tokyo and Seoul with 787s, and Emirates reaches Dubai via Barcelona. The longest route is China Southern’s link to Shenzhen at around 8,800 miles (14,100 km), one of the longest airline routes in the world.
Seasonal peaks follow the Mexican holidays, with Christmas, Easter and the summer months the busiest. Low cost competition has pushed fares down on the trunk routes and kept load factors high.
Getting to and from Mexico City Airport
The metro is the cheapest sensible option. Terminal Aerea station on Line 5 connects to Terminal 1 by a short walkway, and a single fare costs just a few pesos. Terminal 2 is about 800 metres from Pantitlan, one of the busiest interchanges in the network.
Metrobus Line 4 runs an express service from both terminals to San Lazaro, where it meets the metro and the TAPO long distance bus station, and on towards the centre. The fare is around MXN 30 (roughly £1.20) and the journey takes 30 to 45 minutes.
Taxis are restricted to authorised companies with prepaid ticket booths in the arrivals halls. A ride to the Centro Historico or Polanco costs MXN 250 to 350 (around £10 to £14) and takes 20 to 60 minutes depending on the notorious traffic. Multi storey car parks stand in front of each terminal.
Spotting and Photography
Mexico City Airport is a rewarding but demanding place to spot. The best known public spots are the streets around Hangares metro station on Avenida Fuerza Aerea Mexicana, where arrivals onto 05R pass low overhead in the normal northeasterly flow. Pedestrian bridges over Boulevard Puerto Aereo look onto Terminal 1 traffic, and the Camino Real hotel linked to Terminal 1 has rooms facing the field.
Light is strong at this altitude, with mornings favouring the Terminal 2 side and afternoons the Terminal 1 side. Local police and airport security do not always welcome cameras near the fence, so stay on public pavements, keep identification to hand and move on if asked.
What Comes Next
The airport is full and will stay that way. The 61 movement hourly cap applies to Terminal 1 from 05:00 to midnight and to Terminal 2 from 06:00 to 23:00, and the government has used it to steer airlines towards Felipe Angeles at Santa Lucia, which opened in 2022. The move of all cargo flights there in 2023 showed how far ministers are prepared to go.
A renovation programme worth around MXN 8 billion began in 2025 to prepare the terminals for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. The verdict is clear: Mexico City Airport will remain the country’s main gateway, but its growth has ended and future expansion belongs to Santa Lucia. See how it compares with its neighbours on our Airports of the World map.
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