Landing at Mexico City International Airport

What MEX is like

This airport sits inside the city rather than out beyond its edge, which is unusual for a hub of this size. The people moving through it split roughly into those who have come for Mexico City itself and those connecting onward to the coasts or down into Central America. There are two passenger terminals and they are not joined by a walkway, so the terminal printed on your ticket is something to check before you fly rather than after you land. Everything else about the arrival is ordinary; the terminal question is the one that catches people out.

On arrival

Switch the eSIM line on while the aircraft is still rolling; service normally appears before you reach the immigration queue. The walk from the gate to passport control is long, and when several widebodies land together the queue behind it is longer still. That wait is the right moment to open a ride-hailing app or message your hotel, because once you are through customs the arrivals hall is busy and people will approach you offering transport the whole way across it. If you are connecting between the two terminals, give yourself far more time than the distance on a map suggests. Nothing here needs the airport Wi-Fi if your line is already awake.

How far the airport Wi-Fi gets you

There is free Wi-Fi in the terminal, but it comes with a sign-in page, and that page is slowest exactly when an entire flight is trying to load it at once. What you get is enough to say you have landed; it is not enough for a video call or for pulling down an offline map of the city, and the session often expires while you are still watching the baggage belt. The bigger problem is that it stops at the kerb. The moment you step into a car you are back to whatever your own line can do, which is the whole argument for having that line live before the doors open.

Getting into town

The city's metro has a station beside the airport, but it was built for commuters rather than for anyone dragging a large case, so most arrivals take a car instead. The plainest option is an authorised taxi desk in the arrivals hall, where you pay by destination zone before you get in. App-based cars work here too, though the permitted pick-up area has moved more than once, so trust the airport's own signage and the pin your app shows over anything a friend told you last year. On the way in your map will recalculate repeatedly as the traffic ahead rearranges itself. Between that, messaging the driver and a translation app open on the back seat, the ride into town uses more data than people budget for.

What people ask about this airport

• Know which terminal — The two terminals are genuinely separate and you cannot walk between them, so allow generous time if you have to switch and follow the airport's signage on how.
• Settle the ride inside — Arrange the car while you are still inside, at a desk or in an app, and walk out knowing where you are going rather than deciding it on a busy kerb.
• The city sits high — Mexico City sits high on a plateau and plenty of people feel short of breath on the first day, so keep the evening you land loosely planned.
• Keep the chat open — Drivers, hotels and tour operators here mostly communicate by chat app, so a line that stays online is worth more than hopping between Wi-Fi spots.