A hub for the whole country and serving one of the most populated cities in the world, the Mexico City airport (MEX) is a sprawling, haphazard, annoying place that can throw even the most experienced travelers for a loop.
As an expat that lives a few hours away in Guanajuato, I’ve probably passed through it at least 40 times now. It’s the hub for Aeromexico and has direct flights to most major cities in the Americas, as well as quite a few direct flights to Europe and a smattering to Asia. Here’s what you need to know if you have it on your ticket.
Bring a Phrase Book or App
You’d think the airport of a major world capital city would have some people around who speak English, but you’d be wrong. Occasionally you’ll luck out at the information kiosk and with the immigration people, but otherwise you’ll have better luck asking a well-dressed fellow passenger with the means to travel abroad to find an English speaker. Or a kid wearing a heavy metal T-shirt.
Assume you’ll need to communicate in Spanish or rope in a helper. On the plus side, a few of the more expensive restaurants have menus in English.
T1 and T2 in the Mexico City Airport
There are two terminals at MEX and they are on opposite sides of the runways. So be sure if you have a layover that you’re not coming into one and out of the other. Otherwise you’ll need to board a monorail that goes between them or if it’s late, you need to take a bus that isn’t so easy to find. (If you’re having trouble, ask for “Primera Plus” as the shuttle is near where that bus line leaves for other cities.)
If you’re taking a taxi to the airport from a city hotel, make sure you know which terminal you’re flying out of as they’re different drop-offs. It’s hard to generalize about who’s in what terminal, but most of the international flights and Aeromexico flights are out of the newer T2 one.
If you have an early flight, it can be worth it to stay at one of the Mexico City airport hotels. Some of them are even attached to a terminal or have a walkway going direct from the lobby.
You May Need an Immigration Stamp
If you’re flying out of this airport to another country, you have to show an immigration form and get it stamped unless they took your existing one (from your arrival that you had to keep) at check-in. There’s an unassuming, not-very-well-marked kiosk for this in T2 near the entrance of one of the two sets of gates, below the Amex Centurion lounge and a mezzanine restaurant. If you didn’t get it at the gate and don’t go here before boarding, you can’t get on the plane.
Where this gets tricky is if you fly from another spot in Mexico and they didn’t tell you about this. But if you didn’t get a form stamped where you flew out, you need to do it here.
2023 update: It looks like the airport is going paperless for immigration, which means no more paper to hold onto or show! Happy days for future visitors to Mexico who come through here or one of the beach resort airports.
Gate Announcements are Really Late
Like Heathrow in the UK, this is one of those annoying airports where they often don’t decide which gate you’re going out of until 15-20 minutes before you’re supposed to board. So there’s a lot of waiting around looking at a screen, then a scramble to the correct gate once it’s posted, especially in T1.
To make it worse, the gates are not numbered in order as you go down the hall. Instead they go down the right side and then up the left side. So gate 72 is not across from 71 or 73.
The A, B, and C Gates Are a Free-for-all Then a Bus
If you’re leaving out of the A, B, or C gates at the end of T2 for another spot in Mexico, you have to mill around a crowded hallway area until they tell you which of four lines to jump into to get processed. People boarding flights to the Riviera Maya, Oaxaca, and Mazatlan are often crowded around the same gate area. This never really got better with the advent of social distancing either: the area is just not set up for orderly boarding.
Then when your destination gets posted, you go downstairs and wait again to board a bus that will take you to your plane. If you’re on regional Aeromar, you’ll usually go from here, but many Aeromexico ones leave from this gate as well. So if you’re jetting off to one of the luxury hotels in Puerto Escondido, you’ll have to go through a gauntlet of multiple queues to get there. Forget that special treatment or boarding order you expect in business class if you booked that. The boarding process here treats everyone like sheep.
Where to Eat in the Mexico City Airport
If you arrive at either terminal and have some time before your flight, near where you came in by car is a big food court with very reasonable prices. It’s near the check-in areas but on the other side of the building. You’ll have a wide variety of choices, it’s fast, and prices are half what they’ll be after you pass security. At some of the stands you can even order a beer or a michelada.
A simlar option but with limited seating is in Terminal 1 but where the outgoing Mexican buses board. There you’ll find drinks and food that are cheaper than in the main terminal area.
At T1, there’s a hotel in the center of the terminal and there is a cluster of nicer restaurants around that. They’re not cheap, but they’re better than what you’ll find on the first floor. Otherwise you can get Starbucks, doughnuts, or sandwiches at inflated airport prices. (T2 has a Krispy Kreme by the A/B/C area.) One MEX oddity: you can buy a beer or spiked seltzer from a convenience store and drink it anywhere in the terminal.
If you have the right credit card you can get into an Amex Centurion lounge that has a little food. You can use the Aeromexico one if you have status or are flying business class. Some will allow you to pay your way in.
Changing Money in the Mexico City Airport
There are a few money-changing places in T2 at so-so rates. You’ll get a much better rate on the first floor of T1, where it’s hyper-competitive because there are 20+ money changer booths. The best bet, of course, is to just use an ATM instead. You’ll find plenty of those around. Don’t forget to decline any offers for a “special” exchange rate or to get your bills in dollars.
Getting a Taxi at the Mexico City Airport
Mexico City Taxis operate on a pre-paid system and since the airport is not very far from the hotel zones, you’ll likely pay less than $20 to get where you’re going. If you’re going to the historic center, that’s well under $15. There are multiple booths from different companies though after baggage claim and some charge more for a slightly larger or nicer car. Unless you need a van, just look for the cheapest one.
Uber operates from here, but the drivers are constantly fighting with the taxi drivers and the pickup zone is not clear, so it’s easier to come here with them than it is to get picked up by them. It’s really not worth the hassle for the small savings.
The subway connects to the terminal, but you’re not allowed on with luggage. You may not get stopped if you are traveling light, but in general it’s too crowded anyway if you’re lugging suitcases.
Heading Elsewhere in Mexico by Bus From the Airport
If you’re traveling to another city in Mexico overland, there are a few routes that leave out of the Mexico City Airport terminals themselves. Otherwise you’ll need to travel by taxi to the appropriate bus station. The northern bus terminal is close, for heading to Guadalajara, San Miguel de Allende, Queretaro, and others in that direction. The southern one (Oaxaca, Zihuatanejo, etc.) is much further away. Again though, taxi prices are set by zone, so tell them where you ‘re going at the ticket booth and pay in advance.
Some lines leave from the airport itself, including Primera Plus, Omnibus, and others. In T2 you get the bus at the far end of the ground floor. In T1 you catch one in the middle on the mezzanine level. As you’d expect, this makes traveling elsewhere much easier since you can board right from the building where you arrived.
Unlike at most other stations in Mexico, you check in your luggage here like you would at an airline and staffers put bags under the bus. I ran into one more quirky oddity when I recently took a bus out of there though. I had a little airplane bottle of rum from Guatemala in my carry-on bag and they told me I was not going to be able to board the bus with alcohol in my bag. I’ve never run into this before; it must be a Mexico City thing. I popped it open and did a shot of rum at 11 a.m., tossed the bottle in the trash, and kept walking before the stunned rent-a-cop who looked to be 20 knew what to do.
Mexico is one of the cheapest places to live in the world or retire and it’s easy to get there for a good price quickly from the USA. So it’s worth putting up with all this on your way to other places or to travel within the country. After a few times you’ll get the hang of it…
This Mexico City Airport post was last revised in December of 2023. Photos are by Tim Leffel, author of A Better Life for Half the Price. Yes, the architect of T2 had a thing for dots…
Thanks… great info. I’m pinning it for future reference.
You might want to tell people which terminal you’re talking about in the section “GATE ANNOUNCEMENTS ARE REALLY LATE” as that only applies to T2. For T1 the gates are numbered in order from one end to the other. Domestic is 1-15 and International is 17-36 (usually). It’s a really long walk but there’s no doubt where you are. Also both are in one long corridor, if you’re flying international from T1 you need to go through the International Security gates. However, once you’re on the other side you can go wherever you want. The International end has higher end restaurants and shops (Victoria Secret) and the Domestic end has much cheaper small restaurants. The Domestic end used to be all local stuff but now there are a lot of Starbucks, 7-11 and other US fast food places. If you want to buy water and snacks for the plane the Domestic end is much cheaper.
Also often your ticket in T1 will say Gate B. This means you’re in a large holding area until you get a real gate. It has several hundred seats and is in the domestic end of the Terminal with lots of restaurants.
Also as far as the bus stations. If you’re going to Oaxaca you’ll go out of Taxqueña (Sur) which is 5km further away than Norte. However, most of the time you’ll leave from Tapo which is much closer than either one.
We Uber from the airport all the time now. Pay attention to the Uber app, it will tell you which gate to stand at. If you’re standing somewhere else the Uber driver will never come in to get you. Taxi to centro is about 200-270 pesos, Uber is 80-150.
Oh, one other thing. If you don’t want to eat Wings yet another time in an airport and are in T1 you can walk outside and take a left along the building and follow the walkway with all of the other people. This will take you to the Terminal Aérea Metro station where you can go anywhere or you can cross the pedestrian bridge to the other side of the boulevard where you can find many económicas and a few Brazilian restaurants. We never eat in the airport outside of snacks for the flights.
If you want to go to cento on the metro you will need to change one time and it takes 50 minutes. It’s consistent all day long which taxis/ubers are not due to traffic. The cost of leaving your luggage at the Left Luggage Facility (Next to 7-11 in T1) and the metro is a bit cheaper than the cost of an Uber both ways and much cheaper than a taxi and is often faster depending on where you’re going. It’s nice not to heft around your luggage if you’re sightseeing.
The gate system you specify in T1 may be correct for the range, but you usually don’t know what gate you are actually leaving out of until right before it happens. For domestic flights, that can be anything between that range and everyone is just standing around staring at the screen to see where they have to dash off to. I was just there last month and went through this again, as always. Same with Uber—too much work for not much savings. So I take Uber to the airport, but a taxi from. Thanks for the tips though.