The main gateways
Mexico City International (MEX), officially Aeropuerto Internacional Benito Juárez, is the busiest airport in Latin America by passenger numbers and handles roughly a third of all Mexican traffic. It sits only 5 km east of the Zócalo, hemmed in by the city, and has been slot-restricted since 2022, when the federal government cut hourly movements to relieve congestion. Its two terminals are not connected on the landside; the free Aerotrén runs between them airside only, so a terminal change means a taxi or bus.
Felipe Ángeles International (NLU), known as AIFA, opened in March 2022 on the Santa Lucía military air base about 45 km north of central Mexico City in the State of Mexico. It absorbed all dedicated cargo flights out of MEX in 2023 and is the base of the relaunched state-owned Mexicana. Toluca (TLC), 65 km west of the capital, is the third airport of the metropolitan area. Cancún (CUN) is second nationally and first for international passengers, with more non-stop US and Canadian routes than any other Mexican airport. Guadalajara (GDL), Monterrey (MTY) and Tijuana (TIJ) follow. Tijuana is unusual: the Cross Border Xpress footbridge, opened in 2015, lets ticketed passengers walk directly from a terminal in San Diego into the airport, so TIJ works as a second airport for southern California.
Airports by passenger traffic
| Airport | IATA | State | Passengers (approx., millions) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mexico City, Benito Juárez | MEX | Mexico City | 45 |
| Cancún | CUN | Quintana Roo | 30 |
| Guadalajara | GDL | Jalisco | 17 |
| Monterrey | MTY | Nuevo León | 14 |
| Tijuana | TIJ | Baja California | 11 |
| Los Cabos | SJD | Baja California Sur | 7 |
| Puerto Vallarta | PVR | Jalisco | 6 |
| Mexico City, Felipe Ángeles | NLU | State of Mexico | 6 |
| Mérida | MID | Yucatán | 4 |
| Bajío (León) | BJX | Guanajuato | 3 |
| Culiacán | CUL | Sinaloa | 2 |
| Mazatlán | MZT | Sinaloa | 2 |
Who runs the airports
Almost the whole network outside the capital is operated under long federal concessions by three listed groups, which is why terminals in the same group look alike. ASUR holds the south-east: Cancún, Cozumel, Mérida, Villahermosa, Veracruz, Oaxaca, Huatulco, Minatitlán and Tapachula. GAP holds the Pacific and the west: Guadalajara, Tijuana, Los Cabos, Puerto Vallarta, Hermosillo, Mexicali, La Paz, Los Mochis, Manzanillo, Morelia, Aguascalientes and Bajío. OMA holds the centre and north: Monterrey, Chihuahua, Ciudad Juárez, Culiacán, Mazatlán, Acapulco, Zihuatanejo, Tampico, Torreón, Durango, Zacatecas, San Luis Potosí and Reynosa. MEX, AIFA, Tulum, Palenque and Chetumal are run directly by federal or military operators.
Resort and regional airports
Most beach destinations have their own field within 30 km of the hotels. On the Pacific, Los Cabos (SJD) is about 13 km from San José del Cabo and 45 km from Cabo San Lucas; Puerto Vallarta (PVR) is 8 km north of the old town and is also the gateway for Sayulita in Nayarit. Further south come Manzanillo (ZLO), Zihuatanejo (ZIH), Acapulco (ACA), Puerto Escondido (PXM) and Huatulco (HUX). In the Sea of Cortez, La Paz (LAP) and Loreto (LTO) handle mostly domestic and seasonal US flights.
The northern border has its own set — Mexicali (MXL), Ciudad Juárez (CJS), Nogales (NOG), Nuevo Laredo (NLD), Reynosa (REX) and Matamoros (MAM) — though many travellers use the US airport on the other side of the line instead. Mexico regained the FAA's Category 1 safety rating in September 2023, having lost it in May 2021, which let Mexican carriers add US routes again. For the road alternatives on the same map, see the road map; for what the coasts look like on arrival, the beaches map.
Airlines and the domestic network
Three carriers fly almost all domestic seats. Aeroméxico is the full-service airline and the only one in a global alliance, with its hub at MEX Terminal 2. Volaris and VivaAerobus are low-cost, charge for cabin bags and spread their bases across Guadalajara, Tijuana, Monterrey, Cancún and AIFA, which is why so many routes now skip the capital entirely. Mexicana, the flag carrier that stopped flying in 2010, was relaunched in December 2023 as a state-owned airline based at AIFA with a small fleet. Interjet, once the second-largest domestic operator, ceased flying in December 2020 and its slots at MEX were redistributed.
Questions about Mexican airports
How many international airports does Mexico have?
About 60 of Mexico's 76 airports with scheduled service are designated international, and roughly a dozen of them carry almost all of the traffic. Mexico City (MEX), Cancún (CUN), Guadalajara (GDL), Monterrey (MTY) and Tijuana (TIJ) together account for well over half of all passengers.
Which airport should I fly into for the Riviera Maya?
Cancún (CUN) for Cancún, Playa del Carmen and most of the coast; Tulum's Felipe Carrillo Puerto airport (TQO), open since December 2023, is closer to Tulum and Bacalar. Cozumel (CZM) is served mainly by the ferry from Playa del Carmen.
What is the difference between MEX and AIFA?
MEX is Benito Juárez International, 5 km east of the centre of Mexico City and slot-capped since 2022. AIFA (Felipe Ángeles) opened in March 2022 on the Santa Lucía air base about 45 km north of the city in the State of Mexico, and takes low-cost and all-cargo flights.
Can I fly between Mexican cities without going through Mexico City?
Increasingly yes. Volaris and VivaAerobus run point-to-point networks through Guadalajara, Monterrey, Tijuana and Cancún, and the Bajío airports at León (BJX) and Querétaro (QRO) have direct US flights. Long east–west routes such as Tijuana to Cancún are flown non-stop.