2024 became the year with the largest movement of air cargo and passengers in Mexico since 2019 , reported the Mexican Institute of Transportation (IMT) in its 2024 Annual Report of the State of Air Activity Monitor.
According to the document, aviation is an indispensable tool for national integration , tourism, business creation, and domestic and international trade in goods, and is a determining factor in competitiveness and development.
In this regard, the IMT recalled that during 2024 a record was reached in terms of air passenger service, exceeding the pre-pandemic level of 2019 by 17% , since 119.8 million passengers were served, of which 61.7 million corresponded to domestic flights and 58.1 million to international flights, which represented an increase of 0.8%, compared to 2023.
Likewise, 240.42 thousand tons of domestic cargo and 822.71 thousand tons of foreign trade were mobilized , and the 2024 value was 23.7 percent higher than the pre-pandemic value.
He indicated that air cargo’s performance in 2019 was affected by weak growth in global trade , a slowdown in global economic growth, and the effects of the trade war between the United States and China.
He noted that in 2023 there was a 1.1% decrease compared to 2022. This decrease during the first year was due to the slowdown in international trade cargo flows, caused by measures taken to reduce the rising trend of inflation.
Thus, monthly cargo flows for domestic flights averaged 20,000 tons in 2024. In this fifth year since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, these flows fluctuated, ranging between 18.3,000 and 21.8,000 tons per month.
In the case of international trade, it averaged 68.5 thousand tons , with monthly fluctuations between 61.5 and 78.7 thousand tons. October was the month with the highest total flows, and January the lowest.
It was also observed that air cargo flows have an international preponderance (77.3% of the total), that is, linked to foreign trade.
“In general, it is observed that its magnitude has been increasing year after year, except in 2020 and 2023. In the first case, the effects of the coronavirus pandemic caused a significant drop in cargo flows, with the lowest value occurring in April. Starting in May, a gradual but slow recovery in this activity was observed; a trend that generally continued throughout 2021 and 2022,” according to the IMT.
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