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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“This above all makes history useful and desirable: it unfolds before our eyes a glorious record of exemplary actions.”
—Titus Livius (Livy)
“I am ashamed to see what a shallow village tale our so-called History is. How many times must we say Rome, and Paris, and Constantinople! What does Rome know of rat and lizard? What are Olympiads and Consulates to these neighboring systems of being? Nay, what food or experience or succor have they for the Esquimaux seal-hunter, or the Kanaka in his canoe, for the fisherman, the stevedore, the porter?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I believe that history might be, and ought to be, taught in a new fashion so as to make the meaning of it as a process of evolution intelligible to the young.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)