DHL becomes 1st cargo operator at Mexico's new $4B airport

Logistics giant DHL recently began cargo flights out of its new $55 million facility at the Felipe Angeles International Airport (AIFA) just north of Mexico City.

DHL Express has scheduled a daily flight six days a week from Cincinnati to AIFA with a capacity of 40 tons of cargo.

By June, the company will expand to three daily flights to AIFA, including two from Cincinnati and one from Guatemala.

“What’s going to happen in this precinct is that there are going to be three DHL flights every day, and we are going to handle 90% of the country’s cargo coming into this metropolitan zone,” Antonio Arranz, general manager of DHL Express Mexico, told Milenio.

DHL’s 53,819-square-foot facility at AIFA will have the capacity to handle 120 tons of cargo per day and employ up to 280 workers.

The move to AIFA is part of a $600 million investment the company plans to make in Mexico over the next two years, including expanding its fleet of electric vehicles, using more sustainable aviation fuels and installing more solar energy infrastructure across the country.

DHL became the first carrier to transfer its flights from Mexico City’s more centrally located Benito Juarez International Airport to AIFA when the cargo carrier began operations there last week.

AIFA became the second international airport serving the Mexico City metropolitan area when it opened in March 2022.

The $4 billion airport has been beset by controversies over its location, cost and oversight since Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador began the project in October 2019. AIFA is one of Lopez Obrador’s primary undertakings he announced during his run for president in 2018.

Mexico’s national defense ministry oversaw the construction of AIFA, located about 30 miles north of downtown Mexico City.

Lopez Obrador said AIFA was built to help relieve congestion at Benito Juarez airport and will focus on cargo carriers and lower-cost passenger airlines.

In February, Lopez Obrador ordered all cargo flights to leave Benito Juarez airport due to lack of space. Cargo operators have about six months to comply with the president’s order.

The decree published in Mexico’s federal register stated: “Benito Juarez International Airport is closed for the operations of concessionaires and permit-holders that provide the service to the public of regular and nonregular national and international air transportation exclusively for cargo.”

In 2022, airports across Mexico handled 1.14 million metric tons of freight, a 1.2% increase compared to ’21, according to the country’s Federal Civil Aviation Agency.