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Airport Mexico City (Mexico) - International

Mexico City International Airport
Aeropuerto Internacional de la Ciudad de México

IATA: MEX ICAO: MMMX
Summary
Airport type Civil
Owner Grupo Aeroportuario de la Ciudad de México
Serves Mexico City, Mexico
Elevation AMSL 7,316 ft / 2,230 m
Coordinates 19°2610N 099°0419W / 19.43611, -99.07194
Runways
Direction Length Surface
m ft
05R/23L 3,900 12,795 Asphalt
05L/23R 3,952 12,966 Asphalt
Source: DAFIF[1][2]

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 and Latin America's largest, busiest and most important airport. 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 2007, the airport served 25.9 million passengers [3]. In optimal conditions, and with the current renovations and expansion projects completed, the airport will be able to handle up to 32 million passengers per year[4].

Being the main distribution center for Mexico's largest airline Aeroméxico and a secondary hub for its subsidiary Aeroméxico Connect, the airport has become a SkyTeam hub, which represents that it is not only an Origin/Destination (O/D) airport, but a connection point between South America and North America, North America and Europe, South America and Europe, South America and Asia, as well as a connecting airport for flights within Mexico and for international passengers with a destination other than Mexico City. The construction of Terminal 2 created a space where passengers can fly Aeroméxico or any SkyTeam member airline operating into the airport to any destination served from any other, similar to Air France's Terminal 2 in Charles de Gaulle International Airport in Paris, France. When Mexicana becomes part of Oneworld it will again bring more transit passengers to the airport, this time to Terminal 1, where the Oneworld member airlines (except LAN Airlines) operate from.

AICM is Latin America's largest and busiest airport[5]. The airport houses a wide variety of options for its passengers, including a hotel inside Terminal 1 (Hilton, and two adjacent hotels: Camino Real, and Fiesta Inn). A new NH Hotel is expected to open in Terminal 2.

Contents

Lack of Capacity, Slot Restriction and Recent Expansions

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Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. (June 2008)

The airport has suffered since the early 1990s from a lack of capacity due to the limitation of space at its surroundings, since it is located in a densely-populated area and has no more space for expansion. Some analysts have reported that if the airport were to have grown at the same speed as demand, it would now serve over 40 million passengers annually. The main issue with the airport is the limitation that two runways provide, since they are used at 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 18 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 around 26 million passengers in the present year at a rate of 16% per year.

Since the year 2000, the federal government has been trying to maximize the operational capacity if the airport. Former president Vicente Fox Quesada launched a program called Expansion of Mexico City Airport to its Maximum Capacity to expand the airport terminal and operational-wise to its largest extent possible. Several taxiways were planned and built, as well as the expansion and complete remodeling of Terminal 1, demolishing of Old Terminal 2, and finally the construction of New Terminal 2 at the other side of the largest terminal.

In 2005, the airport management together with the federal government decided to build a new terminal at the other side of the airport, in order to take advantage of all possible space inside the airport's borders. Old Terminal 2 which only housed Aeromar's operations in and out the airport was demolished, and a whole new terminal was built in less than two years. Terminal 2 increased the airport's contact positions by 40%, and the operational capacity by 15%. Terminal 2 is connected to the Domestic Building of Terminal 1 by the Aerotrén monorail system, by which a transfer between both buildings is possible in less than 7 minutes.

Criticism of plane spotting area by U.S. newspaper

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

Airport Specifications

Terminal 1 (Built in 1958, expanded in 1970, 1989, 1998, 2000, and 2004)

Old Terminal 2 (Built in 2001)

New Terminal 2 (Built in 2007)

Terminals and Destinations

Terminal 1 (T1)

Domestic Building (Gates A1 to E18)

Will soon house some Mexicana operations (Under construction).

International Building (Gates F19 to H36-A)

Terminal 2 (T2)

Terminal 2 is now housing all Aeroméxico flights out of the airport, becoming the airline's main distribution center. Although the terminal was intended to be served by all-Sky Team member airlines, Air France and KLM are not moving their operations until the new cargo terminal is built aside Terminal 2, since the existing one is at the other side of the airport.

Airlines and Destinations (Gates 50 to 75-F)

Former airlines/destinations

Domestic

International

Cargo terminal

Ground transportation

Metro and bus services

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.

References

  1. ^ Airport information for MMMX at World Aero Data. Data current as of October 2006.. Source: DAFIF.
  2. ^ Airport information for MEX at Great Circle Mapper. Data current as of October 2006.. Source: DAFIF.
  3. ^ Passenger statistics for 2007 (In Spanish) http://www.aicm.com.mx/acercadelaicm_en/AICMinforma/index.php?Publicacion=82
  4. ^ Airport capacity (In Spanish) http://www.aicm.com.mx/acercadelaicm_en/AICMinforma/index.php?Publicacion=82
  5. ^ World's busiest airports (May 2006 - May 2007) http://www.aicm.com.mx/acercadelaicm/Estadisticas/index.php?Publicacion=169

External links

This article based on this article: Mexico_City_International_Airportexternal Link from the free encyclopedia Wikipediaexternal Link and work with the GNU Free Documentation License. In Wikipedia is this list of the authorsexternal Link.