Flying between Mexico City and the US is about to get easier to book. The US Department of Transportation has scrapped the restrictions it imposed almost a year ago, which blocked Mexican airlines from adding new routes or extra frequencies from Mexico City's two airports — the busy Mexico City International (MEX) and the newer Felipe Ángeles International (NLU). The change took effect immediately on Friday, 16 October.

The restrictions date back to a long-running aviation feud. In 2022, Mexico pulled slots used by US passenger airlines at MEX and cut hourly movements, hitting American Airlines, Delta and United hard. Then in February 2023, cargo carriers including FedEx and UPS were ordered to move their operations to NLU at short notice. Washington saw all this as a breach of the 2015 US–Mexico Air Transport Agreement, arguing Mexican carriers got an unfair edge since they could keep carrying cargo in passenger plane holds at MEX.

In retaliation, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy issued an order on 28 October 2025 that cancelled 11 planned routes and two existing Aeromexico services. Viva Aerobus was hit hardest, losing nine planned routes from NLU to Austin, Chicago O'Hare, Dallas/Fort Worth, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York JFK and Orlando. Aeromexico lost a planned MEX–San Juan route that was due to start on 29 October 2025, plus existing flights from NLU to Houston and McAllen. Volaris was blocked from launching a MEX–Newark service.

Why the change of heart? The DOT says Mexico took real steps to fix the problems. Mexican airlines handed back six slots at MEX to US carriers in late 2025, a preliminary agreement on slot reform was reached in May, and Mexico has committed to a transparent capacity declaration process so US airlines get fair access to slots. That was enough for Washington to pull back — though not entirely. Mexican carriers still need to file US schedules with the DOT, get approval for large aircraft, and two other orders remain in place while the US monitors compliance.

For travellers, this is genuinely good news. Expect budget carriers like Viva Aerobus and Volaris to push hard on re-filing those nine NLU routes, which could mean more low-fare competition on city pairs like Mexico City–Denver or Mexico City–Orlando. Aeromexico's San Juan link may also come back to life. If you've been priced out of nonstop flights between Mexico City and secondary US cities, watch this space over the next few months as approvals come through.

Story via Simple Flying.