History
The airport first opened as Balbuena Military Airport with five runways. The first landing was on November 5, 1928 and regular service started a year later, but was officially inaugurated on May 15, 1931. Its first international route was to Los Angeles International Airport operated by Mexicana. President Miguel Alemán opened the terminal in 1952, thus becoming a commercial airport. In the 1970s, president Luis EcheverrÃa closed three runways and gave that land to poor people in order to build their homes, leaving just two parallel runways. In 1980, the terminal was expanded to double its capacity, using a single large terminal rather than multiple terminals as in other airports. Ten years later in 1990, the mixed domestic/international gates were separated to increase the terminal's functionality, along with the separation of domestic and international check-in halls.
In 2001, the east wing of the terminal (H-gates) was opened as a final call waiting area, mainly used by SkyTeam members. Because of the increasing traffic, president Vicente Fox announced the construction of a new, larger airport on 5,000 ha (12,000 acres) in the municipalities of Texcoco and San Salvador Atenco, but when local violent protests aroused, the new airport was cancelled. Instead, he launched a program called Expansion of Mexico City Airport to its Maximum Capacity in 2002 to increase the airport's capacity. The whole terminal was expanded and upgraded with new check-in halls, 13 more baggage claim belts, the construction of Departures and Arrivals floors, construction of several new taxiways and a whole new terminal opposite of the original, thus breaking the single terminal concept. The project was started with an initial investment of $200,000,000 MXP. Nevertheless, its final cost was $800,000,000 MXP. The original quasi-Terminal 2, which only housed Aeromar's operations in and out the airport was demolished, and the new Terminal 2 was built in less than two years.
On November 15, 2007, Terminal 2 was opened, increasing the airport's capacity. All SkyTeam members moved their operations to the new terminal, except Air France and KLM. It was officially inaugurated on March 2008, once the new road accesses and taxiways were finished. Terminal 2 increased the airport's contact positions by 40%, and the operational capacity by 15%.
Read more about this topic: Mexico City International Airport
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“Most events recorded in history are more remarkable than important, like eclipses of the sun and moon, by which all are attracted, but whose effects no one takes the trouble to calculate.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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There are only two great currents in the history of mankind: the baseness which makes conservatives and the envy which makes revolutionaries.”
—Edmond De Goncourt (1822–1896)
“What you don’t understand is that it is possible to be an atheist, it is possible not to know if God exists or why He should, and yet to believe that man does not live in a state of nature but in history, and that history as we know it now began with Christ, it was founded by Him on the Gospels.”
—Boris Pasternak (1890–1960)