Major Airports in Mexico

Key Takeaways

Cancún is Mexico's most-connected airport. Cancún serves around 102 regularly-served nonstop destinations — more than any other Mexican airport — feeding the Riviera Maya from across the Americas and Europe.
Mexico City is now served by two big airports. The historic Benito Juárez (MEX) and the newer Felipe Ángeles (AIFA/NLU), opened in 2022, together anchor the capital and rank second and sixth nationally.
Beach hubs punch above their weight. Los Cabos, Puerto Vallarta and Cancún rank among the busiest airports despite small home cities, driven almost entirely by US and Canadian leisure traffic.
The US is Mexico's dominant foreign market. Cancún, Los Cabos, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey each connect nonstop to roughly 15 US cities — the busiest international air market in the world.
Low-cost carriers rule the domestic map. Volaris and VivaAerobus dominate Mexico's internal network, with Aeroméxico leading the full-service long-haul and the revived Mexicana adding state-backed capacity.

Mexico runs one of the largest and most varied aviation networks in the Americas. Its airports split into three clear roles: a pair of big hubs serving the capital, a string of beach gateways that live on US and Canadian sun-seekers, and a web of industrial and regional cities that keep the country’s domestic low-cost carriers busy.

✈️ See also: Most Active Airlines in Mexico — which carriers fly the most routes from Mexico, mapped.

Below we map and rank Mexico’s major airports by the number of nonstop destinations each one serves, drawn from live route data on AirportRoutes. Because the figures come from observed flight data — a large sample rather than a complete published timetable — we treat them as a strong guide to relative connectivity rather than exact, official totals.

Map of major airports in Mexico ranked by number of regularly-served nonstop destinations, from Cancún and Mexico City to Baja, the Bajío and the Yucatán — Mexico’s 18 major airports, ranked by regularly-served nonstop destinations. Map: Mappr · Data: AirportRoutes

Which Mexican airports have direct flights to the US?

Mexico and the United States form the busiest international air market on the planet, so direct US service is spread across far more airports here than in most countries. The biggest US gateways are the leisure trio of Cancún, Los Cabos and Puerto Vallarta, alongside the metro hubs of Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey — each connecting nonstop to roughly 15 US cities.

On the US side the flying is dominated by American, United, Delta, Southwest, Alaska, Spirit and Frontier; on the Mexican side by Aeroméxico, Volaris and VivaAerobus. Beyond the headline hubs, secondary cities such as León (Bajío), Mérida, Mazatlán, Morelia and Querétaro all carry meaningful US service, much of it tied to migration and family travel to Texas, California and the Midwest.

One caveat worth flagging: the newer Felipe Ángeles (AIFA) airport north of Mexico City shows an “Anchorage” link in the data, but that is a cargo route, not a passenger flight — AIFA’s nonstop US passenger network is still limited to a handful of cities including Houston and Dallas.

Ranked

Major Airports in Mexico by Nonstop Destinations

Ranked by regularly-served nonstop destinations, busiest first.

Airport	IATA	Nonstop	City / Area
1. Cancún International	CUN	102	Cancún
2. Mexico City – Benito Juárez	MEX	97	Mexico City
3. Los Cabos International	SJD	71	San José del Cabo
4. Guadalajara International	GDL	70	Guadalajara
5. Puerto Vallarta International	PVR	65	Puerto Vallarta
6. Felipe Ángeles – AIFA	NLU	58	Mexico City
7. Monterrey International	MTY	58	Monterrey
8. Tijuana International	TIJ	39	Tijuana
9. Del Bajío	BJX	22	León / Guanajuato
10. Mérida International	MID	19	Mérida
11. Mazatlán International	MZT	19	Mazatlán
12. Morelia International	MLM	18	Morelia
13. Toluca International	TLC	17	Toluca
14. Querétaro Intercontinental	QRO	16	Querétaro
15. Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo	ZIH	16	Ixtapa / Zihuatanejo
16. Tulum – Felipe Carrillo Puerto	TQO	15	Tulum
17. Cozumel International	CZM	14	Cozumel
18. Veracruz International	VER	13	Veracruz

A closer look at Mexico’s biggest airports

🏖️ Cancún International (CUN)

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Cancún is Mexico’s gateway to the Riviera Maya and, by connectivity, its single most-connected airport. Built in the 1970s alongside the purpose-planned resort city, it now handles a vast flow of sun-seekers from the US, Canada, Europe and across Latin America, and is the main base for low-cost carriers VivaAerobus and Volaris on their international routes.

Serving Cancún, CUN reaches about 102 regularly-served nonstop destinations, including roughly 28 intercontinental routes. Top destinations include Mexico City, Monterrey, Panama City, Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth.

Main airlines: VivaAerobus, Volaris, WestJet, Southwest, Delta Air Lines. See the full route map for CUN on AirportRoutes →

🏛️ Mexico City – Benito Juárez (MEX)

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Benito Juárez International is Mexico’s historic primary airport and the hub of flag carrier Aeroméxico. Hemmed in by the capital on all sides and operating at capacity for years, it remains the country’s busiest by passengers and the main connecting point for the domestic network — which is exactly why the government opened a second metro airport to relieve it.

Serving Mexico City, MEX reaches about 97 regularly-served nonstop destinations, including roughly 24 intercontinental routes. Top destinations include Monterrey, Cancún, Panama City, Guadalajara and Tijuana.

Main airlines: Aeroméxico, Volaris, VivaAerobus, American Airlines, United. See the full route map for MEX on AirportRoutes →

🌅 Los Cabos International (SJD)

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Los Cabos serves the resort towns of Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo at the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula. Despite a tiny home population, it ranks among Mexico’s busiest airports thanks to relentless US and Canadian leisure demand — one of the highest ratios of international-to-domestic traffic in the country.

Serving San José del Cabo, SJD reaches about 71 regularly-served nonstop destinations. Top destinations include Mexico City, Dallas-Fort Worth, Culiacán, Monterrey and Guadalajara.

Main airlines: VivaAerobus, Volaris, Southwest, American Airlines, Alaska Airlines. See the full route map for SJD on AirportRoutes →

🛫 Guadalajara International (GDL)

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Officially the Don Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla International Airport, Guadalajara serves Mexico’s second-largest metro area and the heart of Jalisco — the home of tequila and mariachi. It is a major domestic hub and a strong migration gateway to the western US, with a fast-growing tech and manufacturing economy feeding business travel.

Serving Guadalajara, GDL reaches about 70 regularly-served nonstop destinations. Top destinations include Mexico City, Tijuana, Monterrey, Cancún and Los Angeles.

Main airlines: Volaris, VivaAerobus, Aeroméxico, Alaska Airlines, Mexicana. See the full route map for GDL on AirportRoutes →

🌴 Puerto Vallarta International (PVR)

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Puerto Vallarta International, named for aviator Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, is the Pacific coast’s premier beach gateway. Like Los Cabos and Cancún, its traffic is overwhelmingly international leisure, with a dense cluster of US and Canadian routes that swell sharply over the winter season.

Serving Puerto Vallarta, PVR reaches about 65 regularly-served nonstop destinations. Top destinations include Mexico City, Monterrey, Dallas-Fort Worth, Guadalajara and Houston.

Main airlines: Volaris, VivaAerobus, United, Alaska Airlines, WestJet. See the full route map for PVR on AirportRoutes →

✈️ Felipe Ángeles – AIFA (NLU)

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Felipe Ángeles International (AIFA) opened in 2022 on a former air-force base at Santa Lucía, about 45 km north of central Mexico City. Built to relieve the saturated Benito Juárez airport, it has grown quickly as low-cost carriers and Aeroméxico shifted flights there, and it doubles as a major cargo gateway for the capital.

Serving Mexico City, NLU reaches about 58 regularly-served nonstop destinations, including roughly 13 intercontinental routes. Top destinations include Monterrey, Cancún, Guadalajara, Mérida and Tijuana.

Main airlines: VivaAerobus, Aeroméxico, Volaris, Mexicana. See the full route map for NLU on AirportRoutes →

🏙️ Monterrey International (MTY)

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General Mariano Escobedo International serves Monterrey, Mexico’s industrial and financial powerhouse in the north. Close to the Texas border and the country’s manufacturing belt, it carries heavy business traffic and is a key low-cost base, with strong links to both the US and the rest of Mexico.

Serving Monterrey, MTY reaches about 58 regularly-served nonstop destinations, including roughly 7 intercontinental routes. Top destinations include Mexico City, Cancún, Guadalajara, San Luis Potosí and Dallas-Fort Worth.

Main airlines: VivaAerobus, Volaris, Aeroméxico. See the full route map for MTY on AirportRoutes →

🛂 Tijuana International (TIJ)

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General Abelardo L. Rodríguez International sits right on the US border, and its Cross Border Xpress (CBX) skybridge lets ticketed passengers walk straight into San Diego — effectively making Tijuana a second airport for Southern California. Its network is heavily domestic, funnelling travellers from across Mexico toward the border.

Serving Tijuana, TIJ reaches about 39 regularly-served nonstop destinations. Top destinations include Guadalajara, Mexico City, Hermosillo, Culiacán and León.

Main airlines: Volaris, VivaAerobus, Aeroméxico, Mexicana. See the full route map for TIJ on AirportRoutes →

Airport rankings, nonstop-destination counts, served cities, airline lists and US/intercontinental connections are drawn from live AirportRoutes route data (observed AeroAPI flight data — a sample, not a complete published schedule; we use the regularly-served figure, which filters one-off observations). Airport history and notable facts are cross-checked against the cited references. The map is a Mappr original.

Primary Data Source:

AirportRoutes — Major airports & routes, Mexico – Live route data: per-airport nonstop destinations, served cities, airlines and US/intercontinental connections.

Reference: