If you think you’ve seen more international flights at Querétaro International Airport (AIQ) than ever, it’s probably not your imagination: federal data shows a spike in international travelers passing though AIQ in 2024.
According to data from the Infrastructure, Communications, and Transportation Ministry (SICT), the number of international passengers traveling through AIQ went up by 60.3% in the first half of the year to 313,832. In 2023, it saw 195,836 international passengers.
Domestic passenger traffic at AIQ also increased this year, by a more modest 10.1%, from 563,056 passengers in the first semester of 2023 to 619,678 in the same period of 2024, the newspaper El Economista reported.
International AIQ travelers represented 33.6% of total passenger traffic at the airport in 2024 (up from 25.8% in the same period of 2023), while domestic travelers represented 66.4% of passenger traffic (down from 74.2% of AIQ’s total traffic), El Economista said.
So far, June has been the airport’s best month this year, with a total of 171,427 passengers (domestic and international) passing through the airport. The monthly average for 2024 at AIQ stands at 155,585 travelers, according to El Economista.
In 2024, with its increase in international travelers, AIQ has become Mexico’s ninth top airport in terms of international passenger traffic. The top airport is the Cancun International Airport, with 32.7% of the market share of international travelers. AIQ has 1.2%.
Nationwide, according to SICT, international passenger traffic grew by 5.5% in June alone, part of an overall growth trend in 2024, in which international passenger traffic increased by 8.8% between January and June.
Cargo down at AIQ
Cargo at AIQ told a slightly different story. According to SICT figures, AIQ handled 37,658 tonnes of cargo from January to June 2024, which made it Mexico’s fifth busiest airport in terms of total cargo traffic and No. 2 in the country in terms of domestic cargo, handling 25,502 tonnes.
Nevertheless, total cargo numbers for AIQ in the first semester of 2024 decreased by 6.3% from last year, from 40,184 tonnes in 2023. This is clearly due to a decrease in international cargo handling numbers (down 24.8% in 2024, from 16,615 tonnes in 2023 to 12,156 tonnes in 2024). Domestic cargo at AIQ actually showed a modest increase of 8.2% from 2023 (23,569 tonnes) to 2024 (25,502 tonnes).
AIQ wasn’t the only airport showing an overall downward trend in cargo traffic in 2024: the Mexico City International Airport (AICM) saw the largest drop in the same period (38.8%), decreasing from one year to the next from 42,996 tonnes to 26,301 tonnes.
Other airports that reported drops in total cargo traffic included Toluca (2.9%), San Luis Potosí (3%) and Monterrey (1.5%).
The SICT attributed the AICM drop to the transfer of international cargo airline operations to AIFA, after President López Obrador issued an executive order in 2023 prohibiting cargo airlines from using AICM in order to ease what Mexico’s Federal Civil Aviation Agency (AFAC) declared to be air traffic saturation there.
Cargo handling numbers at AIFA did grow by 7,051 tonnes in the measured period, but that doesn’t account entirely for AICM’s year-to-year drop of 16,694 tonnes.
With reports from El Economista
