CompanyGraph
Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico S.A.B. de C.V.
GAPB · Mexico
Runs twelve Pacific coast airports in Mexico under government concessions, anchored by a Tijuana runway that serves both Mexican and San Diego travelers.
Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico holds the Mexican federal concessions to operate twelve Pacific coast airports, meaning every landing fee and gate movement at those locations flows through a government document that legally bars any other operator from the same sites. At Tijuana, that concession covers the only certified runway within commuting distance of San Diego, so the airport pulls bi-national passengers who pay aeronautical fees on the Mexican side and then spend money on duty-free goods and food inside the terminal before crossing the border — a combination of revenue streams that depends on the concession, the runway, and the border crossing all sitting in the same place at once. The Tijuana slot cannot be expanded by simply building more runway or terminal space, because US border infrastructure closes off one side and continuous urban development closes off the rest, so any increase in passenger volume beyond the current ceiling would require a land-use renegotiation that neither the Mexican nor US government can complete alone. If the US were to restrict cross-border movement — through visa changes, reduced border hours, or modifications to bilateral aviation agreements — the San Diego catchment would be severed from the Tijuana runway, and no other airport in the network could replace that lost revenue because geographic proximity to a US city is a fixed property of that one site, not something GAP can rebuild elsewhere.
How does this company make money?
Every time an aircraft lands or a passenger moves through one of the twelve airports, GAP collects aeronautical fees from the airline. Separately, passengers spending money at terminal shops, restaurants, and parking lots generate commercial concession revenue that GAP receives directly. The Tijuana airport earns more per passenger than the others because cross-border travelers from San Diego add volume on both sides of that equation.
What makes this company hard to replace?
The concession agreements run for multiple decades and legally block any competitor from operating at the same twelve locations, so airlines have nowhere else to go on that stretch of coast. Airlines that have already assigned their slots and signed gate leases at GAP's airports would face significant cost and disruption to move those operations elsewhere. At international terminals, customs and immigration systems are built around the existing facilities — setting up equivalent processing at a different airport would require going through regulatory approval all over again.
What limits this company?
The Tijuana airport is boxed in on one side by US border infrastructure and on every other side by dense city development. There is no room to add runway length or more gates. To handle more passengers than the airport can currently fit, both the Mexican and US governments would have to agree on a land-use deal — and neither can force that agreement on their own.
What does this company depend on?
GAP cannot operate without Mexican federal concessions covering all twelve airports. Air traffic must be managed by SENEAM, Mexico's air navigation authority. International terminals need Mexican customs and immigration agencies to process passengers. Fuel reaches the airports through PEMEX distribution networks. And all ground equipment must meet Mexican aviation safety certification standards.
Who depends on this company?
Volaris and other Mexican low-cost carriers rely on GAP's Guadalajara airport for key domestic routes — if those operations stopped, those connections would break. Commuters who cross daily between Tijuana and San Diego would face major disruption and would have to reroute through airports much farther away. Tourism businesses in Puerto Vallarta and Los Cabos would lose their main entry point for international flights.
How does this company scale?
Once the terminals are built, adding more passengers generates more retail, dining, and parking revenue with little extra cost — that part scales well. What does not scale is the runways themselves. Each airport has a fixed number of aircraft movements it can handle, and when that ceiling is hit, the only option is to build an entirely new airport rather than simply expand what exists.
What external forces can significantly affect this company?
US immigration policy is the biggest outside force — any tightening of cross-border rules directly reduces Tijuana's traffic. Swings in the peso-dollar exchange rate affect how much international passengers spend inside the terminals on duty-free goods and food. Changes to NAFTA or USMCA trade rules can shift cargo flight patterns between Mexico and North America, affecting how much freight moves through GAP's airports.
Where is this company structurally vulnerable?
If the US federal government restricted cross-border movement — by changing visa rules, cutting the hours the border crossing is open, or renegotiating aviation agreements — San Diego travelers would stop using the Tijuana airport. That would wipe out the bi-national passenger flow that makes Tijuana's revenue per passenger higher than any other airport in GAP's network. Nothing GAP could do on the Mexican side would bring those travelers back.