News / Mexican airport modernisation plan unlikely to boost cargo facilities

© Suriel Ramirez Zaldivar

The Mexican government has announced a whopping MX$134bn (US$7.15bn) investment in airport modernisation, amid calls for an air cargo development plan – but industry players don’t expect any significant increase in cargo capabilities.

Closer scrutiny of the airport development scheme reveals a rather modest role for the public sector. A mere MX$22.7bn will emanate from government coffers, while private airport operators will add MX$102.6bn, with another MX$7.2bn to come from mixed public-private investment.

The funds are supposed to cover modernisation and expansion of 62 airports between this year and 2030.

For the most part, the money is going to be spent on passenger terminals, in anticipation of a projected 4% annual growth in traffic. Cargo does not appear to figure much in the plan, observed Andreu Carbonell, MD of Flare Aviation Consulting.

According to the Airports Council International (ACI), more needs to be done to beef up Mexico’s air cargo capacity. And Rafael Echevarne, director-general of ACI’s arm, covering Latin America and the Caribbean, called for a strategic development plan for the sector.

While the shift of freighter aircraft serving Mexico City to Felipe Angeles airport (NLU) addressed the all-cargo part of the industry, collaborative work is needed to deal with other types of aircraft and carriers, he stressed.

Mr Carbonell is not holding his breath. Unlike its predecessor, the Sheinbaum administration does not have a strong focus on aviation, let alone airfreight development, he said.

The incumbent government shares its predecessor’s intention to develop the nation’s rail infrastructure, which might produce some new development for airfreight at NLU. According to Isidoro Pastor, the airport’s director general, there is interest in developing rail links between NLU and some of the nation’s major container gateways. The idea is to put incoming containers at the ports onto rail and move them in bond to the airport, which would turn NLU into the first multimodal airport in Latin America. Mexico’s rail regulator is currently studying the viability of the concept.

NLU recently moved to boost its cargo capacity from 470,000 tonnes to about 900,000. It has spent MX$1.3bn on the construction of four new warehouses and expanding the cargo apron to handle five freighter aircraft simultaneously. The new facilities are expected to come on stream by the end of the month or late August.

The airport is not exactly bursting at the seams. Some of the warehouses are full, while others are barely used, Mr Carbonell observed. Some of the handling firms struggling with capacity have taken to sending some cargo to under-utilised neighbours at NLU, despite misgivings about handing freight to competitors, he added.

NLU’s throughput actually shrank in the first five months of this year, to 152, 524 tonnes, a drop of 16.9% from the same period in 2024, which management has attributed to the tariff confusion unleashed by the US administration.

At this point it is unclear how Mexico’s cargo flows will shape up once the tariff landscape has settled. While some observers have predicted a drop in GDP, others remain bullish on near-shoring, which has been a major driver of air cargo volumes, alongside e-commerce. The leading carriers at NLU are China Southern Airlines and Cathay Pacific, followed by Atlas Air and Cargojet.

In light of the US government’s moves to curtail freight imports as well as e-commerce parcels from China, Mexico could appeal as an alternative transit point for flows from Asia to Central and South America. Mr Carbonell has seen some interest in this but has misgivings about the viability.

“Customs is very strict, even with transit cargo,” he observed. If transit cargo has to wait more than two hours for a connecting flight, it has to be moved to the customs area, which entails forms to be filled out.

Passenger traffic shows that Canadian and European airlines have shifted capacity from US routes to Mexico. In the first five months of this year, international airlines reduced flights to the US by 1%, while passenger traffic to Mexico rose 2.9%.

NLU is not benefiting from this. Although Benito Juarez airport (MEX), the Mexican capital’s primary gateway is severely constrained, passenger airlines have eschewed a move to NLU, which is further from the city and lacks flight connectivity.

Carriers are holding on to their slots at MEX, which are very lucrative, Mr Carbonell said. Copa tried flying to NLU but abandoned the effort, finding it unsustainable, he added. Mexico’s primary gateway for freighter aircraft will continue to rely on its core traffic.