Airport
Mexico City Benito Juárez Airport (MEX)
Benito Juárez is wedged into the east side of the capital, close enough that the city begins at the terminal door and hemmed in too tightly to spread outwards. That buys arrivals a short run into town and one awkward fact to absorb before landing: the terminals are separate buildings a drive apart, joined airside by a people mover only connecting passengers may board. Much of the rest — the taxi counter, the Metrobús stop, the queue at passport control — follows from which of the two your airline uses.
Updated 2026-09-22
- CodesMEX · MMMX
- Passengers per year (2025)44,605,576
- Elevation2,230 m
- ServesCiudad de México
- Official websiteaicm.com.mx
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Terminal 1, Terminal 2 and the train between them
The split is by airline family, not by destination. Terminal 2 is Aeroméxico's home and takes its SkyTeam partners with it; Terminal 1 handles everyone else — the Mexican low-cost carriers, the US majors, the long-haul fleets from Europe, the Gulf and Asia. Both buildings run domestic and international flights, so the usual shortcut of one terminal for each is wrong here.
The Aerotrén, an elevated shuttle, links the two airside, but only for passengers connecting between flights who can show a boarding pass, and it does not run around the clock. Anyone else takes the public road shuttle or a taxi around the perimeter, which means leaving the secure area and clearing security again. Treat a transfer between the terminals as a leg of the journey, not a walk.
Into the city: metro, Metrobús and the prepaid taxi counter
Metro Line 5 stops at Terminal Aérea, a covered walk from Terminal 1, and it is by far the cheapest way into Mexico City — though the carriages are built for commuters, and a large suitcase is genuinely unwelcome at peak. Metrobús Line 4 is the better public option: it calls outside both terminals and runs to the historic centre on its own airport fare, payable only with the network's rechargeable card.
The authorised taxis work from counters inside arrivals: name the destination, pay a fixed zone fare at the desk, take the ticket to the car. Several licensed firms operate side by side, each with its own tariff board, so the price is posted rather than argued over — and no driver who approaches you in the hall belongs to any of them. Ride-hailing cars cannot collect at the doors; their pickup point is a marked zone between the buildings.
Landing: the stamp, the days and the customs light
Air arrivals no longer fill in a paper tourist form. An officer stamps the passport and writes in the number of days you may stay, and that figure is discretionary — it can fall well short of the maximum, and nobody will point it out. Read the stamp before you leave the hall; what a nationality needs in order to board at all belongs to the entry rules for Mexico.
Customs follows the baggage belts and runs on a randomiser: everyone declares, presses a button, and gets either a green light straight through or a red one into a bag search. A red light means nothing about you. The queue that really sets the length of an arrival is passport control, which stacks up whenever several long-haul aircraft land together.
Layovers, early departures and thin air
Hotels sit on the airport itself — one joined to Terminal 1 by a walkway, another inside the Terminal 2 complex — with a further cluster along the access roads running its own shuttles. They are the sane answer to a pre-dawn departure, because the drive in from most neighbourhoods at that hour is quick while the check-in queue at the far end is not.
Remember what a layover here involves: the capital sits high, and stepping off a long flight into thin air leaves most people slower than they expect. Walk the concourse gently and go easy at the airport bar before an onward sector. If the gap is generous, the airport's position inside the city makes a few hours in town a real option, provided you return to the right terminal.
Onward: the second airport, domestic wings and a hire car
The capital has a second airport well to the north, and it is not an alternative terminal: no quick link joins the two, only a direct coach that takes a serious bite out of a day. An itinerary landing at one and departing from the other is two journeys, and booking is the moment to notice it. Benito Juárez remains the country's main interchange, where the domestic flight network fans out to every region.
Hire-car desks sit landside in both terminals with the lots a shuttle ride away, and collecting a car here is mostly a mistake unless you are leaving the city the same day. The capital operates a rotating no-drive rule keyed to the licence plate and the vehicle's emissions sticker, and the desk is where to establish which day yours is off the road.
Practical: cash for the counters, and the meeting crowd
Several counters here want pesos in hand rather than a card: the prepaid taxi desks, the machine selling the Metrobús card, the porters with trolleys. Cash machines stand landside in both terminals, well before the doors, and drawing a modest amount there saves a scramble at the kerb; notes, cards and what to carry are the subject of money in Mexico.
Arrivals empties into a wide public hall where drivers, hotel representatives and whole families wait behind a rail, thickest exactly where you come out. If someone is collecting you, agree on a precise spot — and land with a data connection already working, which an eSIM set up before departure gives you. Left luggage is landside; assistance for reduced mobility is arranged through the airline in advance.