Mexico City Airport

If taking a taxi at the airport take the white not the red; the white will cost about ten dollars; the red about 20 to Polanco or zona rosa. Both are totally safe - you have to pay for the white as soon as you leave customs.

Some parts of this airport are bright and modern while other parts are cramped and dingy. Landside of Terminal 1 is a long two-story corridor with money exchange desks car rental agencies and shops. Check-in desks for domestic flights are located in small alcoves along the ground floor of the corridor which can be hard to find if you don't know what you're looking for. International check-in is on upper floor. There are some high-end boutiques airside along with the usual duty-free stores. On departure to USA there was a manual inspection of hand luggage at the gate to ensure compliance with liquids rules. On arrival there was a 15 min wait for passport control at 9PM. After you claim luggage you must send it through an x-ray then press a button which displays either a red light (manual inspection) or green light (free to leave). Unlike most airports money change rates are competitive -- poke around to find the best deals. Airport is served by the metro but the entrance is hard to find (walk to south end of terminal then down sidewalk along access road.)

Arrived in the new domestics Terminal used by Skyteam airlines enroute Puerto Vallarta to Leon/BJX. Modern and clean and security quite efficient. Workers spoke some English which was great for our very little Spanish. Interesting shops. The downside is that though the terminal is modern and airy it almost has a cold feeling to it. I guess this is common at Mexico City Airport you don't know the gate until 15 minutes before boarding we had to keep asking Aeromexico staff where our gate was. You must watch your bags diligently as when I was occupied with my iPod a man walked up to our carry-on and then walked away when I looked up. This happened twice.

Unfortunately this airport is always at maximum capacity and even with the additional terminal for international flights [only serviced by SkyTeam members though] it will not be enough. Much modification has been made though and the airport is state-of -the art. Plasma screens await you at check in and different halls allow easier check in and make the process quieter and faster. All the new duty free shop's are amazing along with all of the restaurants. I wish American airports had those choices. Unfortunately immigration is pretty bad in the evening and during peak travel times. Try to avoid 6-8pm or early morning as this is when flocks of large flights from Europe South America and North America arrive. Even with the 3 different immigration stations over 2000 people were in line with me at one time. Surprisingly I only waited an hour.

Two warnings: Your boarding pass may list a gate or puerta but puerta may refer to the entry area for security check. The exit doors to the street also have puerta numbers. Your actual boarding gate must be found on departure screens which only show the next hour or two. After passing thru security travellers have been pickpocketed in the waiting lounges.

This airport had an amazing array of restaurants stores banks and other services. Four Starbucks a Gloria Estefan Cuban restaurant every fast food chain you can imagine and some unique stores like the Museum of Anthropology and the government map store. The queues were short and things were well organized. Even taking a taxi was easy. The major negative was the elongated design which resulted in a lot of walking but you could chalk that up as a positive if you want to get some exercise!

Mexico City's Airport is way better than what I expected since I had never been there before. The new migration areas (M2 and M3) are really effective specially when arriving in a Sky Team member airline (special area). The airport is clean but it should have some internal transportation system because when arriving at concourse A to catch an international flight for example you'll have to walk miles before getting there. I've seen the "Terminal dos" project and it seems to be really nice and hopefully effective because traffic is increasing day by day. I imagined some airport as Bogota's or Sao Paulo's but Mexico City International Airport has a much better infrastructure.

Mexico City is a huge massive international airport and it has been under major construction actually some new areas as the new concourses F1 and F2 have been inagurated and a new international baggage claim and migration area is taking place near the concourse G (gates G29-36). Even tough its still not enough you'll always find looong queues and meanwhile the monorail stars operations you'll have to keep walking hours and hours to find your boarding gate or the baggage claim areas. MEX's terminal 2 is quite nice very clean and small its a shame that its only used by Aeromar. By late 2005 MEX will almost cover the demand it generates terminal 1 will be totally expanded terminal 2 will be demolished and a new one will be built instead and terminal 3 will be a small (10 gate) terminal with service of Aeromar AeroLitoral (AeroMexico Express) the new Mexicana Click and some others.