Benito Juarez International Airport in Mexico City
Benito Juarez International Airport in Mexico City
Most travelers arrive to Mexico City by air, to the Benito Juárez International Airport (IATA: MEX, ICAO: MMMX) , located in the eastern part of the city. There are frequent flights to and from most larger cities in the world, as Amsterdam, Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, Santiago de Chile, Lima, London, Paris, Madrid, Frankfurt, Chicago, Toronto, and Tokyo. Some of the international airlines that operate regular flights to Mexico City include: Aerolineas Argentinas, Aeromexico, Air Canada, Air France, Alaska Airlines , American Airlines, Avianca, British Airways, Continental Airlines, Copa, Cubana de Aviacion, Delta , Iberia, KLM, LAN, Lufthansa, Northwest, TACA, United Airlines and US Airways.
Your airline will only let you board your flight to Mexico, if you have a valid return ticket. Your carrier might not tell you this until you're just about to board. If you plan on say driving out of Mexico, or leaving on a cruise ship, make sure you check this out well in advance.
One way around the problem is to buy a second full price refundable ticket that you don't intend to use and then get a refund as soon as you arrive (or before you leave, as long as you have the original paperwork to show at the jetway). In most major US airports, they'll sell you this 'token' ticket at the jetway. Airline staff in the boarding area help travellers with this problem every day. There're no ticket sales offices at Benito Juarez, you'll have arrange your refund by phone. Make sure you'll have access to a phone that allows international calls. Get a refund number from the phone agent, this being Mexico, everything always goes wrong, but never in your favour!
The airport has a plane spotting area. To reach it, take the subway and go to the Terminal Aerea station.
On January 16, 2008, a new terminal, Terminal 2, opened at Benito Juarez. If you are flying in or out of the city check with your airline as to what terminal you should use for ticketing and check-in. Give yourself extra time to make your flight to avoid confusion. There's an exhaustive list of airline/terminal combinations on the Wikipedia entry at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexico_city_airport.
The terminals are connected by a bus line and a light rail system, which is significantly faster than the bus. Note: For some reason, you can only board the light rail if you have a flight boarding pass or ticket stub from your arriving flight. Tough luck if you have an eticket and haven't printed your boarding pass or if you're travelling to terminal 2 to meet sombody. The storm troopers won't let you board the train!
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Mexico City
Where To Stay & Best Hotels in Mexico City - updated Apr 2024
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Mexico City Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.
