Mexico’s legacy airline Aeroméxico has proposed building a third terminal at the Mexico City International Airport (AICM) to solve the frequent congestion issues of Terminals 1 and 2.

“The airport has room to build a new Terminal 3 that would be larger than Terminal 1 and 2 combined” Aeroméxico CEO Andrés Conesa Labastida said in a podcast appearance this week. “It would increase capacity from 50 million passengers per year, to some 70 or 75 million.” 

According to Conesa, Terminal 3 would be built adjacent to Terminal 2, which would require relocating Aeromexico’s maintenance and repair workshops. Building it next to Terminal 1 would not be possible, he said, since the site currently houses fuel farms and certain infrastructure that would be difficult to relocate. 

“I hope that this project could be studied, because it will be very good for the city and the country,” Conesa said. 

Conesa added that his proposal must be supplemented in operation by the Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA) near Mexico City, and the Toluca International Airport in Mexico state, creating a combined capacity of more than 100 million passengers per year in the Valley of Mexico. 

“This would be more than enough for the next decades,” Conesa stated. 

This is not the first time the AICM’s congestion problem has been addressed, and that a third terminal has been proposed. In 2019, Gerardo Ferrando, CEO of the Mexico City Airport Group, announced a master plan for a third terminal was being drawn up and predicted that it would be inaugurated in 2020. At that time he said a fourth terminal was being analyzed as well. 

Even then, Luis Felipe de Oliveira, director of the Latin American and Caribbean Air Transport Association, said that a third terminal wouldn’t be enough to solve the AICM’s structural issues. 

“A third terminal would help but it won’t solve the problem,” Oliveira said then. 

During former President Enrique Peña Nieto’s administration (2012-2018), the master plan for a new airport had been approved to be built in Texcoco, near Mexico City, designed by renowned architect Norman Foster. That partially built new airport was canceled and the AIFA was built instead. 

Currently, the AICM is undergoing major renovation works to improve the passenger experience ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, which will take place in Mexico, Canada and the United States. 

With reports from A21