A dangerous situation unfolded at the Mexico City International Airport (AICM) on Monday when an Aeroméxico plane landed on a runway that a Delta aircraft was using to take off.
The incident occurred at around 7:30 a.m. when an Aeroméxico Connect flight from Aguascalientes came in to land on the 05 Right runway at AICM.
A Boeing 737 plane operated by Delta Air Lines was reportedly performing its takeoff roll on the same runway when Aeroméxico’s Embraer E190 aircraft flew over it before landing.
The Delta plane had to brake abruptly and abort its takeoff, delaying its departure to Atlanta. It was unclear how close the Aeroméxico plane came to the Delta aircraft.
However, the aviation news website Air Live reported that “both aircraft were simultaneously occupying the critical portion of the runway, creating a dangerous situation with the potential for a high-speed collision.”
A person with knowledge of the near-miss told the newspaper El Financiero that the incident was “more serious” than an incident in 2022 when two Volaris planes came close to colliding at AICM. The director of the government agency Seneam (Navigation Services for Mexican Airspace) resigned following the 2022 incident.
El Financiero’s source attributed Monday’s incident to a “problem” in the control tower at AICM, an extremely busy airport whose two terminals reached saturation point in early 2022, according to the federal government.
“What they’re saying is that they’re investigating to see what happened. The truth is that the people are overworked,” the source said, referring to air traffic controllers.
Este lunes los vuelo 1631 de @Aeromexico Connect con @embraer 190 XA-ALP procedente de AGU y un @BoeingAirplanes 737 de @Delta vlo 590 hacia ATL estuvieron a punto de colisión en el @AICM_mx cuando uno aterrizaba y el otro despegaba. No hay postura oficial aún. #AviationSafety pic.twitter.com/LD4mUe8deL
— Aviation Mex (@Aviationmex) July 22, 2025
A Delta spokesperson acknowledged that “Flight 590 from Mexico City was involved in a runway incursion incident during departure.”
Mexico City International Airport authorities declined to comment on the incident when consulted by El Financiero.
In addition to the near-miss between the two Volaris planes in May 2022, there was a similar incident the same month involving aircraft operated by Aeroméxico and United Airlines.
El Financiero reported that the incident on Monday “points to, preliminarily, an overload of work in control towers and the lack of personnel with necessary training.”
The newspaper noted that in a letter sent to federal Infrastructure, Communications and Transport Minister Jesús Antonio Esteva Medina last December, air traffic controllers warned of the potential consequences of the failure to address a shortfall of adequately trained personnel at Mexican airports. At the same time, they also raised concerns about the excessive workload they face.
In May 2022 — before the two near-misses at AICM that month — the International Federation of Air Line Pilots’ Associations raised concerns about an alleged lack of training and support for Mexico City air traffic controllers who, at the time, had just begun directing planes operating in close proximity to the Felipe Ángeles International Airport in México state, which opened in March 2022.
Monday’s incident came two days after the U.S. government announced new restrictions on flights from Mexico and threatened to end a longstanding partnership between Delta and Aeroméxico.
The U.S. actions are a response to a 2023 Mexican government decree that suspended cargo airline operations at AICM, effectively forcing such airlines to use AIFA.
With reports from El Financiero, Latinus, Travel Pulse and Air Live
