Air Canada Announces Plans to Move Freight Operations to New Mexico Airport

Air Canada Cargo will switch its Boeing 767 freighter flights from Mexico City International Airport (MEX) to Felipe Ángeles International Airport (NLU) starting in July.

The carrier is making the move following a government decree that ordered the move of cargo flights due to capacity limitations at MEX.

The move creates issues when transferring cargo between belly and freighter operations given the two airports are around a 40 km drive from each other.

“Cargo shipments will continue to be accepted on our passenger flights to/from MEX, with our ground handler in MEX remaining as IMM,” Air Canada said.

IMM will also provide cargo handling services at NLU for Air Canada.

The airline will offer three freighter flights per week to NLU.

The announcement that freighter flights should be moved to the new airport was met with criticism from IATA.

The airline association said that expecting airlines to move cargo operations at short notice “is not feasible given the enormous technical, regulatory and infrastructural requirements associated with this transfer”.