Mexico City airport races to finish $500M renovation as the 2026 World Cup nears

MEXICO CITY (AP) — With the 2026 FIFA World Cup less than a month away, thousands of passengers arriving at Mexico City’s Benito Juárez International Airport are greeted by a chaotic construction site of buzzing drills, scattered pipes and unfinished flooring.

The construction work coexists with hundreds of posters promoting the soccer tournament, as well as large-scale figures of soccer balls and trophies, which help passengers forget the inconveniences caused by renovations that have dragged on for a year.

Sitting beside one of the six cranes remaining at the Terminal 1 entrance, 28-year-old engineer Luis Ibarra says he isn’t bothered by the renovations. After all, he noted, the airport has suffered for years from flooding, leaky roofs and severe overcrowding.

The countdown to complete one of the largest renovations at Mexico's largest airport has more than 3,000 people working 20 hours a day, airport authorities told The Associated Press.

It has not been an easy task.

One year into the renovation — with the first phase over 90% complete — complications have been “more than we expected,” Adm. Juan José Padilla, general director of the Benito Juárez International Airport, told the AP. He explained that the unexpected challenges stemmed from half-century-old infrastructure and a lack of original blueprints for some areas.

“We are facing years of neglect,” said Padilla, acknowledging that years of underinvestment had affected the terminals handling some 120,000 daily passengers.

Against this backdrop, work began in May 2025 on a $500 million modernization project. The massive undertaking is fully funded by the airport itself, which has been administered by the Mexican Navy since 2023.

Project coordinator Capt. Arturo Flores noted that the massive upgrade includes new terminal facades, renovated restrooms, refreshed baggage carousels, and the replacement of nearly 100,000 square meters (1,100,000 square feet) of flooring and lighting. An internal redesign also reclaimed 30,000 square meters (320,00 square feet) of waiting space for travelers. Phase two will begin in August — following the World Cup — and run through December.

The renovations also include an increase in security cameras — rising from 2,200 to over 4,000 — which will operate using artificial intelligence to detect suspicious vehicles, luggage or individuals.

Padilla noted that an anti-drone system is also expected to be installed shortly to address any contingencies.

Earlier this month, Mexico’s foreign ministry announced an agreement with the U.S. Department of Transportation to enforce the 2015 bilateral transportation pact through a new series of measures.

These measures include expanding the number of slots — the specific windows allocated for aircraft takeoffs and landings — which Washington had requested for U.S. airlines. During the previous administration, available slots at the capital’s airport were slashed from 61 to 43 per hour, before ticking back up to 44 last year.

In this regard, Padilla reported that the number of slots available to both foreign and domestic airlines will soon be increased to 46.

The latest airport upgrade is a major initiative by Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, following a turbulent period under her predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who had attempted to reroute capital flight operations to a new, military-run airport in a different location — an effort that ultimately failed to gain traction.

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

Workers repair the ceiling of the Terminal 1 during a guided media tour of the renovation work at Benito Juárez International Airport, in preparation for the 2026 World Cup in Mexico City, on Tuesday, May 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

An employee cleans the waiting area in Terminal 2 during a guided media tour of the renovation work at Benito Juárez International Airport, in preparation for the 2026 World Cup in Mexico City, on Tuesday, May 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

A worker paints the ceiling in Terminal 1 during a guided media tour of the renovation work at Benito Juárez International Airport, in preparation for the 2026 World Cup in Mexico City, on Tuesday, May 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

A worker paints the ceiling during a guided media tour of the renovation work at Benito Juárez International Airport, in preparation for the 2026 World Cup, as passengers await their flights in Mexico City, Tuesday, May 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Workers transport a roll of foam next to the FIFA World Cup trophy during a guided media tour of the renovation site at Benito Juárez International Airport, in preparation for the 2026 World Cup, in Mexico City, on Tuesday, May 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A Palestinian man with Israeli citizenship went on a shooting rampage in several towns in central Israel on Sunday, killing one person and wounding five others, according to Israeli police. The attacker was killed by police.

The attack came at a time of heightened tensions following a spate of Israeli settler attacks, and the deadly shooting of a Palestinian baby over the weekend, in the nearby West Bank. Police identified the attacker as a resident of the Arab town of Taybeh in his 20s, but his precise motives were not immediately known.

The attack began with a shooting Sunday morning at a gas station near the town of Kokhav Yair, located on the Israeli side of the boundary with the occupied West Bank. Several other shootings were reported in two nearby Israeli towns and close to the Israeli settlement of Salit, inside the West Bank.

Police initially feared a series of coordinated attacks but eventually determined that a gunman and an accomplice who may have served as his driver were involved. The suspected accomplice was arrested later after he tried to stab police with a glass bottle.

Police said a 35-year-old Israeli man was killed by the gunman in Kokhav Yair, while the Magen David Adom rescue service said five other people were wounded, two severely.

Fears of a widespread attack prompted authorities to order residents to stay at home, and children in the area were kept in lockdown at school for at least three hours.

“Since Oct. 7, the scenario we were expecting was terrorists crossing into our towns from over the boundary. I don’t think that anyone imagined that we would discover the attackers were Israeli citizens,” Oshrit Gani Gonen, the regional council head, told Israeli media, referring to the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, that sparked the war in Gaza.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the security forces who killed the attacker, while Israel’s hard-line public security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who oversees the police force, released a video of himself standing next to what appeared to be a blurred image of the dead gunman.

“This is the end of every terrorist, this is how it should look,” said Ben-Gvir, who recently led an effort to pass a new law that seeks to impose the death penalty on Palestinian attackers. That law faces legal challenges.

Ben-Gvir has come under sharp condemnation from other Israeli leaders for making controversial videos, such as his treatment of flotilla activists who were detained after attempting to break the maritime blockade to Gaza.

The West Bank has experienced a surge in deadly violence since the war in Gaza began. Israel has stepped up military operations across the territory, killing hundreds of people. It says raids are aimed at militants, but scores of civilians have also been killed.

The Oct. 7 attack killed around 1,200 people and took 251 as hostages. Israel’s ensuing offensive in Gaza has killed more than 72,000 Palestinians, including combatants and civilians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. The ministry, part of the Hamas-led government, maintains detailed casualty records that are seen as generally reliable by U.N. agencies and independent experts. It does not give a breakdown of civilians and militants.

Also on Sunday, at least four Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike that hit a police point in Gaza's southern city of Khan Younis, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent. The dead were taken to a field hospital run by the Red Crescent. At least 10 others were wounded, the charity said.

The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strike but has said in the past it will target militants that pose a threat to its troops.

The Oct. 10 U.S.-brokered ceasefire deal attempted to halt the war between Israel and Hamas. While the heaviest fighting has subsided, the ceasefire has seen almost daily Israeli fire.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu in a Cabinet meeting repeated his pledge to take 70% of Gaza: “We are presently holding more than 60% of the territory, and soon we will reach 70%.” He added that Israel is not allowing Hamas to “rearm or harm us,” in comments released to the media.

The head of the U.S.-created Board of Peace that oversees the ceasefire acknowledged last month that next steps in the truce have stalled over the key issue of disarming Hamas.

Associated Press writer Samy Magdy in Cairo contributed to this report.

A previous version of this story was corrected to show that the location where the Israeli man was killed was on the Israeli side of the boundary with the Israel-occupied West Bank, not inside the West Bank.

Blood stains are visible at the scene of what Israeli police say was a series of shooting attacks carried out by a Palestinian citizen of Israel in Kochav Yair, central Israel, Sunday, June 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Israeli security forces and ZAKA rescue service volunteers respond at the scene of a shooting attack carried out by a Palestinian citizen of Israel near Tzur Yitzhak in central Israel, Sunday, June 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Israeli security forces and ZAKA rescue service volunteers respond at the scene of a shooting attack carried out by a Palestinian citizen of Israel near Tzur Yitzhak in central Israel, Sunday, June 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Israeli police officers are deployed at the scene of a shooting attack carried out by a Palestinian citizen of Israel near Tzur Yitzhak in central Israel, Sunday, June 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Israeli security forces are deployed at the scene of a shooting attack carried out by a Palestinian citizen of Israel near Tzur Yitzhak in central Israel, Sunday, June 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)

Israeli security forces are deployed at the scene of a shooting attack carried out by a Palestinian citizen of Israel near Tzur Yitzhak in central Israel, Sunday, June 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)