Mexico City International Airport (); officially Aeropuerto Internacional Benito Juárez (Benito Juárez International Airport) is the main international airport serving Greater Mexico City, along with Toluca International Airport and, since 2022, Felipe Ángeles International Airport ("AIFA"). It is Mexico's and Latin America's busiest airport by passenger traffic and aircraft movements, and the 16th-busiest in the world. The airport sustains 35,000 jobs directly and around 15,000 indirectly in the immediate area. The airport is owned by Grupo Aeroportuario de la Ciudad de México and operated by Aeropuertos y Servicios Auxiliares, the government-owned corporation, which also operates 22 other airports throughout Mexico.
This airport is served by 30 domestic and international passenger airlines and 17 cargo carriers. As the main hub for Mexico's largest airline Aeroméxico (with Aeroméxico Connect), the airport has become a SkyTeam hub. It is also a hub for Volaris and a focus city for VivaAerobús. On a typical day, more than 136,000 passengers pass through the airport to and from more than 100 destinations on four continents. In 2020, the airport handled 21,981,711 passengers, and 36,056,614 in 2021.
Location
Located at the neighbourhood of Peñón de los Baños within Venustiano Carranza, one of the sixteen boroughs into which Mexico City is divided, the airport is 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.
History
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 on board a Voisin biplane. On November 30, 1911, President Francisco I. Madero, was the first head of state in the world to fly on board a Deperdussin airplane; it was 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 (2,720 m long, 40 m wide), 05R-23L (3,000 m long, 45 m 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.