Ministry of National Defense assumes construction of AIFA airport train

Public service from Mexico City Buenavista to AIFA airport to begin July 2025.

During the Peña Nieto administration in Mexico construction of the Texcoco Airport commenced. The Texcoco airport was to be a massive modern airport that would satisfy the needs of Mexico City for many decades to come. In fact it would have been one of the largest in the world. There were some challenges such as it being built on a dry lake bed that on occasion got flooded by rains. Those challenges were not impossible to overcome. However, one of the campaign promises of Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) was that this massive and expensive project would be canceled and a much more modest airport would be built north of the city on the air force base. Ignoring the fact that billions of pesos had already been invested and that Carlos Slim’s development company was doing it at cost as a parting gift to Mexico (he’s 85 years old) AMLO kept to his promise and shut the project down and shifted focus to the AIFA airport north of the city.

I don’t think this was the best solution to the problem and don’t agree with that action. I just need to make that known.

The new Felipe Ángeles International Airport (IATA: NLU), also known as Mexico City Felipe Ángeles International Airport or simply AIFA opened for operation in March of 2022 (2 years ago from this article). The civilian passenger terminal is on the same property as the Santa Lucia Air Force base 40 km north of Mexico City.

Out of curiosity I decided to fly into the new airport to see what all of the hubub was about. Initially it was difficult to book tickets because sites couldn’t decide what to call it. The IATA call sign is NLU, the name is Felipe Angeles International Airport which in Spanish results in the initials AIFA. The older Mexico City airport is the Benito Juárez International Airport or AICM. The real answer for a ticket booking site is to allow you to use any of the above names which eventually Google flights reverted to so now you can type in AIFA, NLU or Felipe Angeles and it will come up.

My first experience with the airport was that it was empty. We deplaned and walked and walked and walked some more through an airport with zero places to sit. As soon as we got to the baggage carousels that all changed and my feelings about the airport did to. The bathrooms are large and nicely built with each having a Mexican theme such as Lucha Libre, or Mexican Silver Screen stars. There are a plethora of baggage carousels and overall I was *very* impressed with how well built the airport was. After leaving security we emptied into a food court area where we ate lunch and then proceeded to the parking garage, down an escalator to the train station and then back up an escalator on the other side to the bus station where we took a Futura Plus bus to the North Bus station which took roughly 50 minutes. When we returned to the airport took the escalator upstairs and were impressed by the shear number of check-in desk locations and how easy security went. Security dumps you directly into the passenger gate hall instead of forcing you to walk through a myriad of duty free shops like so many airports. There was about 75% vacancy in the air-side shops when I was there which has dropped significantly since then. Overall AIFA itself is the best airport experience that I’ve had in Mexico although Merida airport has gotten much nicer in recent years.

I still believe the Texcoco Airport was the correct choice for Mexico City in that there would be one centralized airport close to the city center for all passengers. It would have made air traffic control easier, transfers between inbound and outbound flights easier (and make Mexico City a hub for other destinations) and it would have made transportation to the city easier as it was much closer. Lastly the old AICM property could have been redeveloped as empty space in Mexico City is virtually non-existent.

Still, they’ve done a fantastic job with AIFA and in the future it will be my favorite way of arriving to Mexico City.

However, since this is a passenger rail publication let’s talk about the Achilles heal of AIFA - transportation to the city. AIFA is 40 km north of the Mexico City historic center whereas AICM is 7 km and the Texcoco airport would have been just under 20 km.

When we flew into AIFA we had to wait 2 hours for the next bus to the Norte bus station in Mexico City. Once on the bus that transfer went really well but 2 hours is a long time to wait. Had we flown into AICM we would have been sitting at El Cardenal eating Mole by the time the bus at AIFA took off.

On the return trip to AIFA we were at the Norte bus station waiting for the airport bus which was late. The manager assured us it was coming so we waited 15 more minutes, then 15 more. At 45 minutes late we cut bait and called a Didi ride share to the airport as we couldn’t miss our flight. Achilles heal for sure.

The solution from the beginning was the Buenavista to AIFA suburban train which can whisk passengers from the Buenavista station on the west end of the historic district to AIFA in 39 minutes, if it existed.

Currently there is a suburban train from Buenavista to Cuautitlán run by Ferrocarriles Suburbanos having been in operation since 2008. The Buenavista to AIFA train would use the same tracks from Buenavista to Lecheria and then new track was to be built connecting Lecheria to AIFA including 6 other new stations along the way.

Ideally the Buenavista-AIFA train would have been in operation the minute the airport opened but at the time AMLO said it would be delayed. It was later announced that it would open in the summer of 2024 which blew by without a train. Drone videos of the stations showed that it wasn’t even near completion. The Ferrocarriles Suburbanos concessionaire was dealing with protests along the route as well as engineering problems.

On March 18th 2025 president Claudia Shienbaum announced that SEDANA which built the 1500 km Tren Maya in 5 years will take over the project and it will be done in July 2025. Considering the success that SEDANA has had with building AIFA, the Tulum airport and the massive Tren Maya this is probably good news as Ferrocarriles Suburbanos just wan’t getting the job done.

There were jokes floating around that the AIFA to Pachuca train which is being built by SEDANA but construction hasn’t started on yet would be completed sooner than the Buenavista-AIFA train if Ferrocarriles Suburbanos stayed in control. That would be an awkward place to be in if the the new train lines to the north couldn’t connect to Mexico City due to one 23 km section not being done.

During the announcement on March 18th, president Claudia Shienbaum said

"Since the end of President López Obrador's term and when we took office, we made the joint decision to have this project carried out by military engineers. The concessionaire had plenty of time to develop it, so in agreement with them, the project was undertaken and now has made impressive progress."

I’ll be flying through Mexico City the first week of August, if the Buenavista-AIFA train is done I’ll fly into AIFA just to check it out.

As a side note the Tren Insurgente from Mexico City to Toluca should be done then too as they only have 2 stations left (Vasco de Quiroga and Observatorio). Even if only Vasco de Quiroga is finished you can still ride it by taking the Cablébus from Bosque de Chapultepec to Vasco de Quiroga and transfer (a short walk) to the Tren Insurgente and continue on to Santa Fe for shopping, Metepec (shuttle to Toluca Airport) or downtown Toluca. I’ll post that journey as soon as I take it.