Mexico City Benito Juárez (MEX): The Complete Layover Guide

How MEX actually works

Two terminals, no airside link, and a train that keeps office hours. Get the terminal question right when you book and Mexico City is a perfectly workable connection.

Terminal 1 is the bigger and older of the two, home to Volaris, VivaAerobus, and nearly every long haul foreign carrier, plus LATAM since its move from T2 in June 2025. Terminal 2 belongs to Aeromexico and its SkyTeam partners, Delta and Copa among them. A few carriers split operations across both, so check your booking, not your memory.

The transfer between them runs two ways. The Aerotrén monorail carries passengers with boarding passes between the terminals in under 5 minutes, daily from 5am to 11pm. Outside those hours, the inter terminal bus is the fallback: free for connecting passengers, running 24 hours, taking 10 to 25 minutes depending on traffic that does not fully sleep in this city. For any T1 to T2 connection, 90 minutes is the bare minimum on one ticket and 2 hours is the honest number, more if you land late at night.

Security and immigration deserve a wide berth. At peak times, Friday afternoons, Sunday evenings, and the holiday months, security waits average around an hour and immigration about the same. Arrive 3 hours before an international departure, 2 before domestic. A major renovation ahead of the 2026 World Cup is in progress and around a third complete as of early 2026, so expect hoarding, rerouted walkways, and the occasional closed amenity.

The lounge story has a hole in it right now. Aeromexico closed both Salon Premier locations in T2 in February 2025 for rebuilding, and they had not reopened as of early 2026; status to be confirmed. The slack is picked up in Terminal 1, where Grand Lounge Elite runs 24 hours, takes Priority Pass, serves a la carte food, and won Priority Pass's North American lounge of the year for 2025. The American Express Centurion Lounge in T1, open 5am to 10pm, remains the food pick if your card qualifies, with a menu overseen by a Michelin starred chef. In total at least six lounges are operating between the two terminals while the works continue, and the balance tilts heavily toward T1, which counts five Priority Pass locations against a single lounge and a restaurant on the program in T2. If you hold the card and have any say over your terminal, that settles it.

The izZzleep capsules run on hotel logic: check in opens at 1pm, checkout lands at 11am, the minimum stay is 2 hours, and an overnight works out around 40 US dollars with shared showers, luggage storage, and a safe included. Reviews split honestly down the middle, praise for the cleanliness and the location, complaints about slamming capsule doors and announcements bleeding through the plastic walls. Pack earplugs and it does its job.

Sleeping options are blunt: the free seating is hostile, with armrests nearly everywhere and announcements all night, so the realistic choices are the izZzleep capsules landside in both terminals or a proper room. The Hilton sits inside Terminal 1 near gate 8 of international arrivals, the NH Collection occupies the sixth floor of Terminal 2, and the Camino Real connects to T1 by an enclosed bridge. For an overnight between flights, the NH and Hilton win on pure convenience.

The wifi is free in both terminals, covering 36 gate areas in T1 and 23 in T2 through a simple browser login, at speeds good enough for messaging and boarding passes rather than video calls. It is an open network, so treat it like one. Power outlets are scarce in the older waiting areas, another renovation promise, so charge when you find the chance rather than when you need it.

If the city calls, be realistic. Metro Line 5 from Terminal 1 costs about 5 pesos and takes around 50 minutes to the center; the authorized taxis from the booths inside arrivals run 320 to 420 pesos and 20 to 60 minutes depending on traffic. Use only the official booths, never a driver who approaches you. Between immigration queues, traffic, and a 3 hour return buffer, we would not leave the airport on less than 8 hours.