Mexico signaled it will return some slots at bustling Benito Juárez Mexico City International Airport to U.S. carriers following a months-long trade war with the Trump administration.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Monday that Mexican airlines had agreed to give up some slots to their U.S. counterparts after “taking competitiveness into account,” according to a report from Reuters.
Sheinbaum did not say how many slots would be turned over to U.S. airlines but noted that, in 2026, a new digital flight distribution system will be implemented across Mexico. U.S. and international carriers have already endorsed the system, she added.
The apparent concession comes after the U.S. Department of Transportation moved to dissolve a partnership between Delta and Mexican flag carrier Aeroméxico and then canceled several existing and planned crossborder routes operated by Aeroméxico, Viva Aerobus, and Volaris.
The department said it was taking a harder line with Mexican airlines in response to Mexico’s government reducing foreign slots at Benito Juárez – allegedly hurting carriers like United, Delta, and American – and pushing U.S. cargo operators like FedEx and UPS to the recently opened Felipe Ángeles International Airport in Zumpango.
Felipe Ángeles is considered a less desirable landing point for freight carriers because it is further away from Mexico City and increases logistical hurdles.
Mexico maintains that it was working to relieve congestion at Benito Juárez.
The slot confiscations and relocation of U.S. cargo operators took place in 2022 and 2023. With the change in presidential administration, the DOT zeroed in on what it termed an unfair “market distortion” and announced plans to unwind the Delta-Aeroméxico partnership in retaliation. That decision was finalized in September.
One month later, the department increased the pressure by canceling 13 U.S.-Mexico routes, including Aeromexico’s routes between Felipe Ángeles and Houston and McAllen, Texas, and Volaris’s Mexico City-Newark, New Jersey, route.
Sheinbaum denounced the cancellations as unfair and likely politically motivated. She spoke with President Donald Trump about the matter earlier this month, but until Monday it was not clear if the two countries were moving toward a new agreement.
A U.S. appeals court last week granted Delta and Aeroméxico a temporary stay against the DOT’s order to unwind their joint venture.
