46.2 Million Passengers Used The Mexico City International Airport In 2022

Despite having a busy year in 2022, Mexico City International Airport's (AICM) passenger numbers fell short of the record achieved in 2019, Mexico News Daily reported.

The two terminals at AICM saw little over 46.25 million passengers in 2022, an 8% decrease from the 50.3 million travelers that visited the airport in 2019.

According to AICM data, the majority of passengers, nearly 70%, were flying domestically, with the remaining passengers using the airport either before or after taking foreign flights.

A reduced cap on the number of flights permitted per hour at AICM was established in October, according to Carlos Torres, an aviation industry analyst, and this insured that passenger numbers remained below pre-pandemic levels in 2022.

“The decision to temporarily reduce the operations per hour from 61 to 52 put the brakes on the activity the airport had had since the beginning of the year. That’s why the 2019 [passenger] numbers weren’t reached,” he said.

The total number of flights that took off from and landed at AICM was 18% below the 2019 figure, said reports.

According to Torres, compared to prior years, the proportion of domestic passengers to all passengers was higher in 2022.

“Before the pandemic, the proportion was 50-50 between … domestic and international passengers. The difference [in 2022] may be due to the slow recovery of the United States and Canadian [outbound tourism] markets last year,” he said.

Another aspect, according to Torres, is that a large proportion of incoming foreign visitors fly directly to other Mexican airports.

“For example, the Cancún airport … received a higher number of international passengers [in 2022],” he said.

He also added that the airports in Puerto Vallarta, Los Cabos, Monterrey, and Guadalajara all saw an increase in foreign arrivals.

Mexico City International Airport is the leading international airport serving Greater Mexico City, along with Toluca International Airport and, since 2022, Felipe Ángeles International Airport. It is Mexico's and Latin America's busiest airport by passenger traffic and aircraft movements and the 16th busiest in the world.