More than 3,500 travelers caught in limbo as McAllen’s only nonstop Mexico City flight faces shutdown

Local leaders are pushing for an exemption from a recent U.S. Department of Transportation decision that will halt all Aeromexico flights between McAllen International Airport and Felipe Ángeles International Airport in roughly 100 days. 

Many business executives rely on the nonstop flight between Mexico and the U.S., without delays or layovers. More than 30,000 passenger tickets were sold this year for the Aeromexico route between Mexico City and McAllen, which launched in 2024. 

Now, more than 3,500 passengers who already purchased tickets for that flight are in limbo, McAllen officials told the Rio Grande Valley Business Journal. 

It took the city of McAllen years to secure the nonstop flight, which generated a local economic impact of $10 million, McAllen officials said. 

“The airlines are very diligent in their analysis of what a market can sustain. We know that it’s a good route,” McAllen City Manager Isaac Tawil said. “If a legacy carrier from the United States wanted to fly a route directly from McAllen to Mexico, we would welcome the opportunity to host that flight. Right now, American carriers don’t want to run non-stop service to Mexico from McAllen.” 

The Trump administration announced plans this week to revoke permission for several Mexican air carriers operating more than a dozen flights nationwide. The binational fight is about U.S. airlines competing for customers seeking to fly between the U.S. and Mexico City, where there are two main airports: Benito Juárez and Felipe Ángeles. 

U.S. officials claim that Mexico didn’t keep up its end of a previous deal made with then-president Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo disputed those claims this week. She asserts that U.S. pressure conflicts with Mexico’s sovereignty as a nation to make its own decisions about airport access, likening Trump’s move to treating the nation as a “piñata.”

The Mexican Airline Pilots Association said on social media this week that it’s concerned about a situation that could affect thousands of jobs and that the Mexican government had ample warning of a potential ban. 

“Decisions made without a technical or long-term perspective have led to a scenario of labor and economic uncertainty that is now materializing as the result of the orders issued by the U.S. Department of Transportation,” the pilot’s letter said in Spanish. “This situation demonstrates the lack of a state vision that recognizes the strategic importance of aviation as a driver of connectivity, economic development, and employment.” 

McAllen officials requested assistance in removing the Aeromexico flight restriction from U.S. Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, as well as U.S. Reps. Monica De La Cruz, Vicente Gonzalez, and Henry Cuellar as the federal government negotiates the 2015 U.S.–Mexico Air Transport Agreement. 

The city said that revoking flight authorization “would disproportionately harm McAllen’s residents and regional partners, undermining years of diplomatic and economic progress.” 

The McAllen International Airport generated $1.2 billion in economic impact in 2024, and its activity supported more than 8,400 jobs, including $356 million in payroll. 

To help encourage negotiations between the U.S. State Department and Department of Transportation, alongside their Mexican government counterparts, McAllen offered economic data to government officials in both nations. 

“We are hopeful that common sense will prevail and that as the negotiations have continued and conversations between Washington D.C. and Mexico happen, this route will be protected,” Tawil said. 

The talks are expected to continue into next week.