The problems with MEX
 

Oh my. I was so excited by the YYC-MEX route announcement – a resumption of a pre-COVID route that I loved, and a route that I should have been able to make great use of. It just resumed last week.

I’ve tried to book it for my flights to MEX and to other destinations in Mexico. But I really can’t. So far, I’ve booked MEX and other Mexico trips via other airlines and/or other airports.

I fear that a combination of timing + terminal means this one will not do well. I really want it to do well. But I just can’t see it happening.

Problem 1: Times. Yes, AICM is a massively congested airport where available slots for new airlines are almost non-existent. WestJet had to take what they could get. But the times that they got stuck with lead to some big challenges (and make me question the feasibility):

• Going to MEX as your final destination? You’ll land at 12:40am. Then you go through Customs. Finally, you’ll make it to your lodging in Mexico City at perhaps 3am. That’s just undesirable under any circumstances, but I prefer AirBnBs here. It’s infeasible if not impossible to check in to an AirBnb at 3 in the morning. And a hotel arrival at 3am is also not always easy either.
• Connecting at MEX, the home base of WestJet's partner AeroMexico? The WS inbound YYC to MEX at 12:40am does not align with any outbound AeroMexico connecting flights. Not until the next morning. You’ll have hours to kill, overnight, in an airport where everything is closed. And even then, you'll be in the wrong part of the airport ... read on:

Problem 2: Terminals. WestJet uses T1. AeroMexico, their interline partner (and WS sells lots of connecting itineraries to/from AM flights) uses T2. T1 and T2 are nowhere close to each other. They’re on opposite sides of MEX airport. There’s a train that connects the two terminals, but it stops at 11pm sharp – making it useless for anyone attempting to connect between WestJet and AeroMexico. The only option: go landside, get a late night 15-20 minute cab or Uber to get to the other terminal, and then re-clear security in the other terminal. All in the middle of the night.

Problem 3: No recognition by AM. Admittedly this is more of a frustration than a ‘problem’ and only impacts WestJet's frequent customers, but there’s zero reciprocity between AM and WS – in spite of them being fairly significant partners. WestJet status gets you zilch with this partner, so after enduring horrible flight timing and a horrible cross-town taxi journey between terminals 1 and 2, you also will not have access to Sky Priority at an AeroMexico check-in counter, and your AM boarding zone will be determined solely by a combination of your seat row and your SkyTeam loyalty status (i.e. nada, if you booked via WestJet). So, you’re pretty much last to board if you have any type of Y fare.

Problem 4: WestJet “All Economy” on a loooong redeye. Sometimes. I looked at MEX>YYC for some trips where WestJet might be feasible for me. (If you can tolerate a redeye, the northbound segment is workable if you're starting in Mexico City.) On one of my return dates, this 6 hour (from boarding to deplaning) redeye flight is on an "All Economy" aircraft with minimal legroom and 3x3 seating throughout. No Premium. No Extended Comfort. (And the exit rows were pretty much the only seats already selected!) Some flights have Premium and EC. While some are overnight Swoopers/Lynx buses. I can tolerate a red eye if I might have a chance at being comfortable and getting some sleep. I wouldn't tolerate it otherwise.

I really do want this route to be successful. I'm hoping for it. I want it to last. I really want to use it. But ... yikes.

My wife and I would LOVE to take a long weekend to MEX on a direct flight, or take our kids.

There is no scenario where we are doing these flight times. Who wants to linger in CDMX until midnight before they take off? Who wants to arrive to their hotel at 3AM? I actually could live with the 2-3AM arrival and just sleep in the next day, but leaving at 2AM on a short red-eye is a non starter.

It is an incredible city for sure ... in my books, on par with London or NYC.

Agree. Been many times. But these flight times aren’t worth it.

For people destined to MEX, absolutely.

But for connections over MEX, the WS times are only part of it. The fact that WestJet uses a different terminal than AM (so inaccessible at night that it may as well be a different airport) is the deal-breaker for connections.

It feels like this awesome route was set to fail before it even started.

Those are certainly awful times. Reminds me of when there were flights ywg-mco and they flew down to mco in the evening, and then back to ywg and the flight got back at like 1AM! What a treat that would be with a plane full of kids exhausted from a week at Disney. I think I even emailed WJ complaining that the flight time didn't exactly fit the target audience for these flights.

Probably got the only slots that were available/offered to them.

Has MEX really gotten that much more congested since WS last operated this route (late 2018) and had a very nicely timed daytime turn? Wikipedia says it handled 45.4 million passengers last year vs 47.7 million in 2018, and aircraft size has generally been trending upwards (aircraft movements down from 459K to 322K in the same years), so the slot thing isn't making a ton of sense to me.

I agree the timing renders this flight useless, and I'm puzzled why they chose to run it at all, unless the target market is primarily people living in CDMX visiting Canada and/or people living in Canada VFR in CDMX, in both of which cases the concerns listed here (while very relevant to many of us gringos) may not apply.

Like several others, I'd love to be able to do a long weekend trip down there, but will never take this flight as-is.

Mexico’s government started restricting slots - and actively reducing flights - at MEX a couple of years ago.

From a 2023 news article:

That put huge pressure on MEX’s existing traffic.

The president’s solution was to build his pet project second airport for Mexico City (NLU) which has turned into a white elephant. It’s far less accessible, useless for AM connections, and only served by a few flights operated by discount carriers (plus an occasional AM or United flight).

https://www.aeroroutes.com/eng/250603-wsamcodeshare

WestJet from June 2025 expands codeshare partnership with Aeromexico, covering additional domestic routes operated by the latter.

Wow. Good luck with those codeshare connections. If WS used the AeroMexico terminal, it’d at least be kind of feasible (if you could overlook the overnight wait between the WS arrival from YYC and the AM morning departures).

But connecting T1 to/from T2 after hours (when the terminal train doesn’t run) is essentially the equivalent landing at JFK and connecting to a flight departing from LGA. It’s honestly that ridiculous.

Not for nothing but AC YVR-MEX lands at like 2340 and it's pretty full for good portions of the year. There's times where it's absolutely dead, but not that often. They have more connections, especially recently with Avianca, but it's mostly O/D still. I do agree they should link up with AM, a red eye out of YYC would probably work nicely, but AM did it before and stopped for whatever reason so presumably either they CAN'T...or for some odd reason, didn't want to. IMO like a 6am (ish) arrival into MEX and turning back out at 0730 to YYC would've been ideal, but there's gotta be a reason.

Interesting…

Claudia Sheinbaum, the president of Mexico, flew from MEX to Calgary today to join the G7 meeting.

As became the standard for Mexico a few years ago under the previous populist president, she flew commercial. In economy class. She was the only leader who didn’t fly a big ol’ government plane to YYC.

Did she fly the WS Mexico City non-stop? Nope.

She connected at YVR. Instead of WS, she flew MEX-YVR, and then YVR-YYC.

(The press reports don’t specify which airline(s) she flew. It could have been a need to fly at least part way in AM, for optics. Or it could have been a schedule issue. Either way, it wasn’t the one and only non-stop option.)

https://www.reddit.com/r/aircanada/c...mmit_with_air/
She flew AC.

Leaders of a country don't fly commercial for security reasons.

If Mexico has different rules, so be it.