Airport hub · AICM + AIFA
Mexico City International handled 44.6 million passengers in 2025 — a second consecutive decline (−1.7%), at 88.6% of its 2019 record — while running one of the busiest two-runway operations on Earth at a capped 44 movements an hour. Its relief valve finally pressurized: Felipe Ángeles (AIFA) crossed 7 million passengers, up 12%, and took over as the country’s top cargo airport with 406,000 tonnes. Together the metropolitan system moved 53.6 million — and the World Cup aims AICM back at 50.
AICM’s 2025 ledger — 44.6 million passengers, domestic down 4% to 27.1 million, international up 2.1% to 17.5 million — is what managed saturation looks like. The airport runs 122,000 passengers a day through two runways and 313,467 annual movements, pinned by a federal slot decree that Washington answered in October 2025 by revoking 13 Mexican route authorizations. Inside the fence, an MX$8.5-billion renovation (35% complete at end-2025) rebuilt Terminal 1’s international areas and Terminal 2’s baggage halls for the World Cup; outside it, the network still anchors on Madrid (574,000 passengers, the top international route) and Cancún (1.57 million, the top domestic).
Management reads 2026 as the rebound: CEO Juan José Padilla projects close to 50 million passengers in the tournament year — matching the 2019 record of 50.3 million — on World Cup months running 20% above normal occupancy and peaks near 5.5 million a month, all without extraordinary schedule expansion: just the 44th hourly slot, granted in March 2025 and, officials concede, still not fully used.
Four years after its March 2022 inauguration — built by the army on the Santa Lucía air base for MX$183 billion after the Texcoco airport’s cancellation — Felipe Ángeles closed 2025 at 7 million passengers (+12%), 39 domestic and five international routes, and a financial surplus of MX$762 million: profitability arrived in year two, not year six as planned. The master program projects 9 million for 2026 and 19.5 million of capacity by 2032.
The cargo transfer is the structural story. With freighters pushed out of AICM by decree, AIFA became the country’s busiest cargo airport — 406,000 tonnes in 2025 on 49 cargo airlines, more than 1.1 million tonnes since opening — while passenger access was the persistent criticism. That ended on 26 April 2026, when the Felipe Ángeles Train opened from Buenavista: 41 kilometres in under an hour, every 15 minutes, projected at 84,000–165,000 riders a day. The “ghost airport” chapter is closed; the question now is how fast the system’s second pole grows toward its target.
The TIO Read: judge the Mexico City system as a portfolio, not a single airport. AICM’s decline is administered, not organic — slots are the instrument — and AIFA’s +12% with a cargo crown says the relief valve works. The reviewer’s call: for 2026–27 trips, default to AICM for the network but price AIFA on domestic hops now that the Buenavista train killed the transfer penalty; and watch the US-Mexico slot dispute — the 13 revoked routes are the single biggest controllable risk to the system’s international growth.
Subscribe to the digest and receive key market signals every two weeks.