News / Turkish Airlines plans expansion of services to Mexico with a weekly freighter

Folks at Mexico City’s Felipe Angeles International Airport (AIFA) are getting the welcome mat ready again.

Turkish Airlines (THY) is planning a weekly freighter operation from its Istanbul base to AIFA, via a US gateway, in January or February, according to Ertan Alpay, the carrier’s general manager, Mexico.

Between 25 and 35 tons on the B777 freighter chosen for the route will be allocated to the Mexican market – the altitude of the Mexican capital does not allow freighters to take off with a full load, so they typically top up en route to maximise load factors.

Turkish intends to add a second weekly frequency on the route and Mr Alpay added that management was already studying opportunities and preparing to increase the airline’s presence in Mexico.

The conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine have slowed THY’s expansion in Mexico as well as in other markets, he said.

The airline currently runs daily passenger flights with B787 aircraft to the Mexican capital. AIFA became its designated freighter gateway last year, as the government banned freighter operations at the city’s congested Benito Juarez airport (AICM).

AIFA has seen a steep rise in volumes: international throughput soared 224.7% in the first ten months of this year. Now handling purely passenger flights, AICM’s tonnage tally slumped 51.5%.

International air cargo flows also climbed at Monterrey and Guadalajara, up 13.5% and 4.8% respectively January-October 2023. Overall international tonnage was up 8.7% to 727,019 tons, while domestic traffic increased 2.8%.

On the inbound side FedEx led growth, with a 14.5% rise in tonnage to 67,490 tons, followed by Qatar Airways and Lufthansa, which clocked up increases of 13.5% and 13% respectively in inbound volumes. FedEx rival UPS fared less well, seeing a 7.5% drop in its Mexico-bound volumes, to 32,870 tons.

Despite a drop in tonnage, Cathay Pacific has remained the leading Asian carrier serving Mexico, where officials have expressed interest in beefing up connections, especially to China. Currently, airline connections to Asia come courtesy of Cathay, ANA, China Southern and Korean Air, while some Asian traffic is routed over the Middle East via Emirates and Qatar Airways.

Between them, these airlines carried 112,000 tons in the first nine months of this year, according to Mexican civil aviation authority FAC. This sees them comfortably on course to exceed the 125,000 tons they moved in the whole of last year.

With Turkish the latest carrier to field a freighter at AIFA and Mexico one of the primary beneficiaries of the near-shoring trend, the prospect for further growth in 2025 is promising – unless somebody in Washington takes a sledgehammer to Mexico-US cargo flows.

The threat of a 25% tariff is causing some concern, although it is unclear how much of this is diplomatic bluster. The composition of the new leadership team in Washington suggests tariffs are viewed there not merely as a bargaining tool.