| Mexico City International Airport Aeropuerto Internacional de la Ciudad de México |
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| IATA: MEX – ICAO: MMMX | |||
| Summary | |||
| Airport type | Public | ||
| Owner | Grupo Aeroportuario de la Ciudad de México | ||
| Location | Mexico City, Mexico | ||
| Coordinates | |||
| Runways | |||
| Direction | Length | Surface | |
| ft | m | ||
| 05R/23L | 12,795 | 3,900 | Asphalt |
| 05L/23R | 12,966 | 3,952 | Asphalt |
The Mexico City International Airport (Spanish: Aeropuerto Internacional de la Ciudad de México or AICM), also called Benito Juárez International Airport (IATA: MEX, ICAO: MMMX) is a commercial airport that serves Mexico City, the capital of Mexico. It is Mexico's largest, busiest and most important airport, expected to handle over 30 million passengers in 2008. Although this was not its official name for several decades, it was formally named after the 19th century president Benito Juárez in 2006, and is Mexico's main international and domestic gateway. This hot and high airport offers direct flights to more than 100 destinations worldwide. In 2005, the airport served 27 million passengers, increasing to 29.7 in 2006 and 19 million in the first half of 2007. When current renovations and expansion projects are fully completed ), the airport will be able to handle up to 45 million passengers per year. AICM is Latin America's largest and busiest airport and is one of the 30 most important airports worldwide in terms of passengers, operations, and cargo. The airport, comprises a wide variety of options for passengers, as one hotel inside Terminal 1 (Hilton, and two adjacent hotels: Camino Real, and Fiesta Americana), as a new NH Hotel expected in Terminal 2.
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Lack of Capacity and Slot Restriction
The airport has suffered since the early 1990's from a lack of capacity due to the limitation of space at its surroundings, since it is located in a densely-populated area, and it has no more space for expansion. Some analysts have reported that if the airport had grown at the same speed as the demand, it would nowadays serve over 40 million passengers annually. The main issue with the airport, is the limitation that two runways provide, since they are used at a 97.3% of their maximum capacity, leaving a very short room for new operations into the airport. Even with the inauguration of new Terminal 2, the airport would be ideally designed to serve around 24 million passengers per year, according to the international standards for runway and terminal usage, instead, the airport will keep increasing the number of passengers from the around 27 million passengers in the present year at a rate of the 16% per year.
Remarkable Measures
On November 28, 2004, The Arizona Republic, a U.S. newspaper, published an article saying that it was remarkable that, after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, Benito Juárez International Airport kept its plane spotting area open to the public, whereas a large number of airports worldwide had decided to close theirs. The Republic estimated that about 300 viewers and 100 model airplane and food sellers are attracted to the area every day. The airport's director told the newspaper that they had decided to leave the area open because it offered a free alternative for low-income families to spend the day. Nevertheless, from inside the airport facilities, it is practically impossible to get a full view of the airport, since many obstructions have been built in order to meet the airport's safety standards.
Incidents
- It had a notable incident on October 31, 1979, when Western Airlines flight 2605 crashed while landing. The crew of the DC-10 had landed on the wrong runway and the jetliner impacted construction vehicles that were on the closed runway. There were 78 fatalities ( including one on the ground ) and 14 survivors.
- The Mexican Aero California had a runway overran in 2006, during an intense storm at the airport. There were no victims, but the aircraft was scrapped. A woman,however, died later due to a heart attack.
- On November, 2007, an AeroMexico Boeing 757 collided with a Mexicana Airbus A318 when it had to suddenly turn around after a passenger jumped from a Lufthansa Boeing 747. There were no victims.
Expansion
Plans to build a second, auxiliary airport in either Texcoco (State of Mexico) or Tizayuca (Hidalgo) were floated by the government in 2001–02, but these were later shelved due to resistance from local farmers dissatisfied with the price offered for their land. Because of this, the AICM (Aeropuerto Internacional de la Ciudad de México) has undergone major construction work, comprising the following:
- Terminal 1 - Domestic Building
- Renovation of interiors, including the enlargement of the land-side corridor and a new level to increase the flow, add more room for businesses and banks, and the direct connection to the International Hall.
- Renovation of the external facade, including an innovative wave-like rooftop which provides more light to the terminal.
- Remodeling of AeroMexico's and Mexicana's domestic check-in counters, including expansions and more space for their increasing operations.
- New hall on the landside of the domestic check-in areas.
- Expansion of airside Hall B.
- Introduction of 4 baggage-claim conveyors at Hall C2.
- Terminal 1 - International Building
- Renovation of interiors with a contemporary urban-style architecture.
- Relocation of check-in areas, all airlines serving international destinations were moved to three new areas, F1 for SkyTeam member airlines, F2 for Star Alliance member airlines and Mexicana, and F3 for the remaining companies.
- Division of arrivals and departures on different levels.
- New J corridors connecting the H concourse to the F check-in areas.
- New Duty Free shopping areas on the J corridor.
- Construction of a new baggage-claiming areas with 14 conveyors at halls E3 and E4.
- New migration areas, including the division of passengers according to their procedence (M1 and M2).
- Renovation of the bulding's exterior facade with urban-style architecture and materials.
The airport will be able to compete with world's major airports, as to offer any service available at an airport. The construction of Terminal 2, means the introduction of a new kind of service in the country, since it will be, together with Monterrey's Terminal A, Mexico's most modern air facility, as the introduction of inter-terminal transportation in Mexico City. After Terminal 2 is fully operative, airplanes landing on the right runways will use the right terminal, and viceversa, reducing by almost 10 minutes, the time per airplane from its landing to the parking at the contact position. When the major construction works end, the airport will have 62 boarding gates, as well as 45 remote positions, for a total of 107 parking positions for aircraft serving the airport. Terminals 1 and 2 are connected by a light-rail train (Aerotren) that operates in a single direction every 12 minutes between both terminals. The train is to be used by passengers with connecting flights that have at least two hours between flights. Passengers with shorter connecting times will use the free bus service (Aerocar) provided between both terminals on a continuous basis.
Terminals, Airlines and Destinations
Terminal 1
Domestic Building (Gates A1-E19)
- Hall A1 (Will soon be available for other airlines to operate)
- Aeroméxico (Acapulco, Aguascalientes, Cancún, Chihuahua, Ciudad Juárez, Culiacán, Guadalajara, Hermosillo, Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo, La Paz, León, Los Cabos, Mazatlán, Monterrey, Puerto Vallarta, Reynosa, Tijuana, Torreón, Villahermosa)
- Aeroméxico Connect (Acapulco, Campeche, Chihuahua, Ciudad del Carmen, Ciudad Obregón, Culiacán, Durango, Guadalajara, Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo, La Paz, Los Mochis, Matamoros, Mérida, Minatitlán/Coatzacoalcos, Monterrey, Morelia, Oaxaca, Poza Rica, Reynosa, Tampico, Tapachula, Torreón, Veracruz, Villahermosa)
- Aeroméxico (Acapulco, Aguascalientes, Cancún, Chihuahua, Ciudad Juárez, Culiacán, Guadalajara, Hermosillo, Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo, La Paz, León, Los Cabos, Mazatlán, Monterrey, Puerto Vallarta, Reynosa, Tijuana, Torreón, Villahermosa)
- Hall A2
- Aero California (Chihuahua, Ciudad Juárez, Ciudad Obregón, Colima, Culiacán, Durango, Guadalajara, Hermosillo, La Paz, Los Mochis, Mazatlán, Mérida, Monterrey, Tepic, Tijuana, Torreón, Veracruz)
- Hall B
- Mexicana (Acapulco, Cancún, Culiacán, Guadalajara, Los Cabos, Mazatlán, Mexicali, Minatitlán/Coatzacoalcos, Monterrey, Oaxaca, Puerto Vallarta, Tampico, Tijuana, Veracruz, Zacatecas)
- Click Mexicana (Aguascalientes, Cancún, Chetumal, Ciudad del Carmen, Ciudad Victoria, Colima, Cozumel, Guadalajara, Huatulco, Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo, León, Manzanillo, Mérida, Nuevo Laredo, Oaxaca, Puerto Escondido, Reynosa, Saltillo, San Luis Potosí, Torreón, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Villahermosa)
- Mexicana (Acapulco, Cancún, Culiacán, Guadalajara, Los Cabos, Mazatlán, Mexicali, Minatitlán/Coatzacoalcos, Monterrey, Oaxaca, Puerto Vallarta, Tampico, Tijuana, Veracruz, Zacatecas)
- Hall C
- Aviacsa (Acapulco, Cancún, Chetumal, Ciudad Juárez, Culiacán, Guadalajara, Hermosillo, León, Mérida, Mexicali, Monterrey, Oaxaca, Puerto Vallarta, Tampico, Tapachula, Tijuana, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Veracruz, Villahermosa)
- Hall D
- Magnicharters (Cancún, Huatulco, Ixtapa/Zihuatanjeo, Los Cabos, Manzanillo, Mérida, Monterrey)
- Nova Air (Cancún, Huatulco, Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo, Manzanillo, Puerto Vallarta) Charter Flights
- Aladia (Cancún)
International Building (Gates F20-H36-A)
- Hall F1 (Will soon be available for other airlines to operate)
- Aerolíneas Argentinas (Buenos Aires-Ezeiza)
- Aeroméxico (Atlanta, Barcelona, Buenos Aires-Ezeiza, Chicago-O'Hare, Houston-Intercontinental, Lima, Los Angeles, Madrid, Managua, Miami, New York-JFK, Orlando, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Phoenix, Rome-Fiumicino [begins April 2008], San Antonio, San Diego, San Pedro Sula, Santiago de Chile, São Paulo-Guarulhos, Seattle/Tacoma, Shanghai-Pudong [begins April 8], Tokyo-Narita)
- Aeroméxico Connect (Austin, Houston-Intercontinental, San Antonio)
- Air France (Paris-Charles de Gaulle)
- Continental Airlines (Houston-Intercontinental, Newark)
- Continental Express operated by ExpressJet Airlines (Houston-Intercontinental)
- Copa Airlines (Panama City)
- KLM (Amsterdam)
- Northwest Airlines (Detroit)
- Hall F2
- Air Canada (Montréal, Toronto-Pearson)
- Alaska Airlines (Los Angeles)
- Lufthansa (Frankfurt)
- Mexicana (Bogotá, Buenos Aires-Ezeiza, Calgary [Begins June 1, 2008], Caracas, Chicago-O'Hare, Dallas/Fort Worth, Denver, Guatemala City, Hamilton [seasonal], Havana, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Montréal, New York-JFK, Panama City, Portland (OR), San Antonio, San Francisco, San José (CR), San Juan (PR) [charter flights], San Salvador, Sacramento, Toronto-Pearson, Vancouver)
- United Airlines (Chicago-O'Hare, Denver [seasonal], Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington-Dulles)
- Hall F3
- American Airlines (Chicago-O'Hare, Dallas/Fort Worth, Miami)
- Aviacsa (Houston-Intercontinental, Las Vegas)
- Avianca (Bogotá)
- OceanAir (São Paulo-Guarulhos)
- British Airways (London-Heathrow)
- Cubana de Aviación (Havana)
- Iberia (Madrid)
- Japan Airlines (Tokyo-Narita, Vancouver)
- LAN Airlines (Santiago de Chile)
- LAN Peru (Lima)
- TACA (Guatemala City, San Salvador)
- Lacsa (San José (CR))
- US Airways (Charlotte, Phoenix)
Terminal 2
Domestic Concourse (Gates 63-75)
- Hall A1
- Aeromar (Acapulco, Aguascalientes, Celaya, Ciudad Victoria, Colima, Jalapa, Lázaro Cárdenas, Manzanillo, Minatitlán/Coatzacoalcos, Monterrey, Morelia, Poza Rica, Queretaro, Reynosa, San Luis Potosí, Tepic, Uruapan, Zacatecas)
- Hall A2
- Aeroméxico (Begins Operations January 15, 2008)
- Aeroméxico Connect (Begins Operations January 15, 2008)
- Aeroméxico (Begins Operations January 15, 2008)
International Concourse (Gates 50-62)
- Hall A3
- Aeroméxico (Begins Operations January 15, 2008)
- Aeroméxico Connect (Begins Operations January 15, 2008)
- Continental Airlines (Begins Operations January 15, 2008)
- Continental Express (Begins Operations January 15, 2008)
- Copa Airlines (Begins Operations January 15, 2008)
- Delta Air Lines (Atlanta, New York-JFK, Orlando, Salt Lake City)
- LAN Airlines (Begins Operations January 15, 2008)
- LAN Peru (Begins Operations January 15, 2008)
- Aeroméxico (Begins Operations January 15, 2008)
(Although Terminal 2 was originally designed for the operations of all SkyTeam member airlines, Air France and KLM will not move their operations to the new terminal until the airport authorities figure out which will be the best solution for carrying the freight from the commercial terminal to the cargo terminal, since the last one is located aside Terminal 1, at the other side of the airport from Terminal 2.)
Cargo Terminal
- Cielos Airlines
- FedEx
- DHL
- Cargolux
- Aerounion - Aerotransporte de Carga Union
- Centurion Air Cargo
- Varig Log
- Air France Cargo
- Martinair
- Atlas Air
- Astar Air Cargo
- UPS
Former Airlines
- Aeroflot
- Aeronica
- Air Panama
- Alitalia [May return in 2008/2009]
- Braniff
- Eastern
- Ecuatoriana
- Ladeco
- Lineas Aereas Paraguayas
- Malaysia Airlines
- Pan Am
- Qantas [May return in 2008/2009]
- Sabena
- TWA
- Tan Sahsa
- Varig
- Viasa
- Western
Metro and Bus Service
The airport is served by the Terminal Aérea Metro station, located just outside the national terminal; it also has a Bus Terminal, which is served by various bus lines [1] with routes to Cuernavaca, Puebla, Querétaro, Toluca, Pachuca, and Córdoba. Whilst the airport always had a bus area, the terminal building itself was created in 2003, to accommodate the many passengers that utilise bus service.
