Freight forwarders and logistics companies serving the Americas no longer think of the region’s air network as a peripheral add-on to ocean freight. Latin American airports now handle everything from export flowers and pharmaceuticals to e-commerce parcels on overnight schedules. With volumes showing a steady growth path—and with governments racing to upgrade runways, cold-chain rooms, and free-trade zones—these gateways are transforming how independent forwarders plan routings, price capacity, and promise lead-times to customers.

The Latin American air freight market, valued at $1.04 billion USD in 2025, is projected to experience sustained growth, driven by expanding e-commerce, increasing cross-border trade, including inter-Latin American trade. Key growth drivers include the rising demand for more reliable and quick turnaround delivery services, particularly for perishable goods and high-value products.

Global air cargo demand rose by 3.4% in 2025 compared with the previous year, according to data released by the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

At the same time, total capacity, measured in available cargo ton-kilometers (ACTK), increased by 3.7% year on year. For international operations, demand rose by 4.2%, while capacity increased by 5.1%.

Latin America Air Freight Industry Concentration & Characteristics

The Latin American air freight industry has been defined by a moderate level of concentration, with a few large global players dominating but now also including several significant regional carriers. While FedEx, UPS, and DHL hold substantial market share, particularly in international freight, regional players like LATAM Cargo, Avianca Cargo (Tampa Air), and Aeromexico maintain strong positions in domestic and regional routes.

Other leading players in the Latin American airfreight industry include IAG Cargo (UK), Copa Airlines (Panama), American Airlines, Delta Airlines, Azul Cargo Express (Brazil) and Emirates Skycargo.

Nicholas Sutherland’s opinions and claims are his own, and not necessarily those of Finance Colombia.

Regional Growth Drivers

• E-commerce explosion – Same-day and next-day service expectations are migrating south, driving express integrators to expand cargo terminals in Latin America and sign block-space agreements with regional carriers.
• Perishables dominance – Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Chile collectively ship more than 1.5 million tons of flowers, fruit, seafood, and pharma each year—commodities that depend on airport infrastructure for freight with reliable 2-8 °C corridors.
• Pharmaceuticals – Colombia, Mexico and Brazil stand out as not only having large national companies, but also some of the largest pharma companies in the world have factories in these countries.

Electronics, jewelry, auto parts, specialized machine parts, and high-value textiles are also driving increased traffic.

Latin America’s Hub Status

For years, Latin America has been spoken of primarily as a supplier, a hub for perishables, electronics, and auto parts feeding the U.S. and Europe. Fast forward to 2025 and something is unmistakably clear: the region is no longer merely sourcing for the world. It is becoming one of the most strategically viable air cargo growth engines, driven by nearshoring, rising consumer markets, and accelerated infrastructure investment.

Leading Locations

Mexico

 Since 2023 the Felipe Ángeles International Airport, also within the Greater Metropolitan Area of Mexico City, has now surpassed the Benito Juarez airport for air cargo with 2025 figures showing 413,224 metric tons in air cargo traffic.

The International Airport of Mexico City, known officially as Benito Juárez International Airport, stands out as the largest airport in the country and is now the second busiest air cargo hub in Mexico and number three in the LATAM region. The figures underline the importance of this hub. In January 2022, the air terminal managed a total of 41,650 tons. In 2023, this number rose to 47,206.8 tons, reflecting an important increase of 5,556.8 tons. It is important to mention that this airport also acts as a center of operations and connections (HUB) for the Mexican airline Aeroméxico, further strengthening its strategic position in the airport and logistics scenario in the region.

The International Airport of Cancun (CUN), located in the Mexican Caribbean, is a major hub in cargo handling in Latin America. With leading-edge facilities and advanced systems for the processing of goods, the airport handles a diversity of products, including consumer goods, textiles, electronic parts and pharmaceutical products. Its strategic location makes it crucial for trade routes between North America, Latin America and Europe and it has undergone constant growth in its volume of cargo.

Colombia

El Dorado International Airport is in Colombia’s capital city, Bogotá, and stands out as the third most important airport in Latin America in terms of freight volume. It registered a 2024 throughput of 809,00 tons, with flowers, perishables and pharma being the main categories.

Colombia has consolidated its position as a world leader in the export of a wide range of products, including products derived from agriculture, foodstuffs and chemical products. The airport has also been consolidated as the center of strategic operations (HUB) for international airline, Avianca.

Two 3,800 m runways at 8,360 ft elevation make BOG a purpose-built wide-body freighter hub. Cargo airlines position here to bridge east-west schedules across the Caribbean, giving forwarders same-night connections into MIA, AMS, and DOH.

Panama

Tocumen International Airport (PTY), Panamá City handled 216,653 tons in 2024 (a 4% increase over 2023). PTY sits astride the Colón Free Zone and the Panamá Canal rail link; a third runway is budgeted for development in 2027 to future-proof capacity.

A new development project called “Tocumen Cargo City”, with an area of 124 hectares, which includes the concession for the development of the cargo terminal and logistics zone, was announced in 2024. This project will take advantage of Tocumen’s competitive advantages as the region’s main air hub that connects daily more than 80 commercial destinations, and more than 50 air cargo destinations integrating a multimodal axis with the country’s maritime and land transport operations,

 Peru

Jorge Chávez International Airport is in the region of Callao, outside of the metropolitan area of Lima (Peru). It stands out as the center of operations and connections for LATAM Airlines.

In 2023 the airport handled 230,993 tons of air freight. The largest quantities of air export products were fresh asparagus, blueberries, salmon and other seafood. In 2024, the airport also added another runway and a new passenger terminal with an adjoining logistics park.

Brazil

São Paulo-Guarulhos International Airport (GRU) had a throughput of 235,600 tons in 2024. Air-sea multimodality is boosted by a 90-minute drive to the Port of Santos. Automotive, machinery, pharma cold-chain (largest airport cool-store in Brazil) are the highest categories of products.

Campinas Viracopos (VCP) airport, in Sao Paulo state (not the city) handles roughly one-third of Brazil’s imported air freight and was voted 2024 Cargo Airport of the Year by routesonline.com . It boasts a 90,000 m² cargo terminal with 11 dedicated cold rooms and a live-animal zone.

 Looking Forward

Governments are aware that there is now fierce rivalry to attract air cargo logistics operations and several have identified the sector as a key segment which would improve the competitiveness of their economies and stimulate economic growth and create skilled employment opportunities. Integration of air cargo, ports, incentives and free zones have become a cornerstone for attracting logistics and manufacturing companies.

Cargo airports in Latin America are writing the next chapter in hemispheric logistics. For independent freight forwarders, and other investors, these hubs are not just transit points, they are strategic pivot points to shorten lead times, diversify modal risk, and command premium margins in niche verticals. Airports are emerging as focal points in this new logistics landscape. Policy support, geography, and international partnerships are essential to attracting international operators and service providers.

Several countries have made successful initiatives to increase investment in the multimodal logistics space including the Dominican Republic, El Salvador (with a focus on increasing Maintenance Repair and Overhaul operations) Ecuador and La Aurora International Airport in Guatemala becoming a major hub, with LAATS, a Guatemalan logistics and freight company, managing all regular cargo flights there.

Attracting Investment in the Caribbean

For countries in the Caribbean to consider becoming air cargo logistics locations, they require international operators to view them as viable long-term locations, therefore several factors need to be considered.

Cold-Chain certification is a cornerstone for diversified airfreight operations. Pharma shippers demand IATA CEIV or WHO GDP accreditation. GRU, VCP, and LIM all hold multiple certifications, allowing forwarders to move temperature-controlled cargo without auxiliary containers significant cost saving.

Customs & Free-Zone Synergy have been the defining characteristics of a country’s success. Many airports interface directly with bonded zones or inland ports. Panama’s Tocumen International Airport’s on-airport logistics park and Panama Pacifico free zone cut transfer times by 24 hours compared with off-site warehousing.

Customs Harmonization and Focused Incentives

Caribbean countries must consider integration of the electronic DUCA-F, a fundamental document for the export of products originating in a Central American country to other countries in the region, within the framework of current trade agreements. It integrates and connects the customs systems of the six countries that make up the Central American region. This interconnection significantly improves customs controls, allowing for the automatic validation of declared data and real-time verification of approvals issued by the single windows and customs authorities of each country.

Airports may waive or discount landing fees for 1–2 years to attract new carriers or new routes. Sao Paulo’s Viracopos International Airport in Brazil runs an incentive program for cargo carriers as it looks to strengthen international hub’s cargo activities. The program aims to develop Viracopos as an international cargo hub, and the gateway’s operator – Aeroportos Brasil Viracopos – wants to increase the number of international flight routes and cargo frequencies. Some of these incentives include 100% exemption of landing fees for operations at the airport’s cargo terminal for the first 24 months of a carrier’s cargo operation.

Like landing fees, building rents can be discounted for air cargo carriers. For example, St. Louis International Airport offers 18 months of waived terminal building rents and landing fees for new transoceanic service and related logistics. Income tax exemptions for the first four (4) years of operation and reduced tax rates (sub 10%) for air cargo-related logistics operations are other ways to compete with nearshore rival locations. Income tax exemptions on rental for developers are essential for infrastructure development. These exemptions can be for twenty years, combined with a reduced tax rate for the following years.

Several Caribbean countries have declared intentions to compete for investment in air logistics, however very few (except for the Dominican Republic) have made it a priority with an accompanying tactical and focused execution plan. Caribbean countries who wish to position themselves as an air cargo hub need to have feasibility studies done by internationally recognized logistics companies along with a well-defined plan for what reasonable short-term and long-term success looks like. It’s also essential to have a realistic outlook of what each country can offer, rival strengths and incentives and a clear understanding of any deficiencies which may pose headwinds to their stated goals.

The US Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has authorized the entry of Colombian shell eggs destined for industrial processing, according to an announcement made by Diana Marcela Morales Rojas, Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism (MinCIT). This decision expands the export capacity for Colombia’s poultry sector by allowing the product to enter the US market without requiring additional import permits or sanitary certificates from the Colombian Government.

The authorization by APHIS follows technical and commercial discussions between US and Colombian regulatory bodies. Minister Morales Rojas stated that the outcome enables the poultry industry to expand its presence in international markets and integrate into higher-standard value chains.

The regulatory modification is the result of collaboration between the Government of Colombia, the Instituto Colombiano Agropecuario (ICA), the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, the Embassy of Colombia in the United States, and the Federación Nacional de Avicultores (Fenavi), the trade association representing the poultry sector.

Six US facilities have been designated to receive the Colombian shell eggs for processing. These plants are situated in the states of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Arkansas, and Georgia. The direct entry authorization for industrial use simplifies the logistics and required sanitary compliance for the export of the product.

Above photo: Colombia’s Minister of Commerce, Industry and Trade, Diana Marcela Morales (courtesy MinCIT)

Before he became Latin America’s most celebrated chef, Álvaro Clavijo spent years doing what few aspiring cooks romantically imagine: scrubbing plates in the basements of Parisian kitchens. He had left Bogotá after a brief, unsatisfying year studying architecture at Los Andes University. In Paris he dabbled in photography, learned impeccable French, and quickly discovered that the underbelly of a culinary capital is more grit than glamour.

But something in the rhythm of kitchens – heat, repetition, precision – anchored him. Despite his mother’s skepticism that he could make a living cooking (“She couldn’t even fry an egg,” he jokes), he enrolled at Barcelona’s prestigious Hofmann School, known for turning students into chefs ready for the academy’s own Michelin-starred restaurant.

Three years in Barcelona, five in France, and still, Colombia tugged at him. Yet just as he considered returning home, another city intervened – New York, home to the temples of modern gastronomy. He landed at Thomas Keller’s Per Se, where the immaculate choreography of haute cuisine shaped him indelibly. “My cooking is French, my ingredients are Colombian, and my organization is American,” he says today, seated in the dining room of El Chato, the Bogotá restaurant that has now been named Latin America’s Best Restaurant 2025 by Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants.

Clavijo returned to Bogotá in 2013 to open the first incarnation of El Chato in Quinta Camacho. The menu – slow-cooked meats, obsessive technique, and elegant, deeply flavored dishes – won over small but devoted crowds. Still, it was removed from the city’s emerging gastrosphere. When a more neighborhood-friendly house became available in Chapinero Alto, he moved the restaurant, unaware that the next decade would transform it into one of the continent’s most influential kitchens.

Today, El Chato is a study in unpretentious sophistication. The 80-seat dining room blends the familiar with the eccentric: a 1970s rotary telephone, faded high-school portraits, and stacks of old medical encyclopedias donated by friends. Bare brick walls glow under soft lighting. The décor is tongue-in-cheek, but the menu – one page, clean, unfussy –  reveals Clavijo’s philosophy: dining should thrill, not intimidate.

A meal begins with the restaurant’s signature “mule,” part Moscow classic, part tribute to the Colombian countryside’s icon. Infused with herbs and tropical fruits, the drink sets the tone for a night driven by local ingredients elevated through global technique. Upstairs, the kitchen team moves like monks—quiet, deliberate, wholly focused.

Clavijo’s signature dishes have become objects of devotion. A roast lamb, equal parts Boyacá and Provence, is tender, perfumed, and blanketed with a buttery cream sauce. The crab in avocado purée, studded with mango, foraged greens, and blackened-rice chips, is the kind of dish entire essays could be written about. Beef tartare arrives garnished with rose vinaigrette, mini croutons, and kale mayonnaise. Even the lunch menu—Cuban pulled pork sandwiches, bright shrimp buns—shows a level of refinement that belies its casual delivery.

Temperature, he insists, is everything. He pushes heat to its limits, and his meat cuts are never simply slapped onto a grill; they are cured in-house for weeks, allowing “alchemy,” as he calls it, to work. Rarely leaving the kitchen, he has built a culinary identity rooted in mastery of technique and reverence for Colombian produce, from the high Andes wetlands to the Amazon lowlands.

What distinguishes El Chato – and how it ascended from No. 3 in 2024 to No. 1 in 2025 – is its role as an ambassador for Colombian biodiversity. Working closely with small growers and horticulturists in the Sabana de Bogotá, people whose crops rarely reach high-end kitchens, Clavijo’s dishes are not recreations of Colombian cuisine but reinterpretations – rooted in memory, informed by travel, and executed with discipline.

On a typical night, the dining room hums with locals and international travelers alike. Bogotá’s restaurant scene is fiercely competitive; many places don’t survive their first year. El Chato did more than survive. It set a new standard, one that the world has now recognized by awarding it the top spot in Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants.

For Clavijo, the accolade is gratifying but not defining. The work continues. The flavors deepen. The relationships with farmers strengthen. And every night, in that Chapinero house where mountain meets sea and garden meets homestead, his team quietly reshapes what Colombian cuisine can be.

The 2025 Latin America’s 50 Best list highlighted restaurants from 21 cities, including seven first-time entrants, underscoring the region’s growing culinary diversity. Kjolle in Lima ranked No. 2 and was named Best Restaurant in Peru, while Don Julio in Buenos Aires placed third, securing Best Restaurant in Argentina. Boragó in Santiago took the No. 6 spot, with its chef, Rodolfo Guzmán, receiving the Icon Award for his influence on Chilean cuisine. Quintonil in Mexico City (No. 7) and Tuju in São Paulo (No. 8) were recognized as the best restaurants in Mexico and Brazil respectively.

Cartagena-based Celelé also has an impressive rank among Latin America’s 50 Best, coming in at No.5.

Casa Las Cujas in Santiago, which debuted at No. 14, won the Highest New Entry Award, while Cosme in Lima earned the Highest Climber Award after rising 19 places to No. 9. Nuema in Quito, ranked No. 10 and named Best Restaurant in Ecuador, saw chef Alejandro Chamorro win the peer-voted Estrella Damm Chefs’ Choice Award.

Bianca Mirabili of Evvai in São Paulo (No. 20) was named Latin America’s Best Pastry Chef, and Argentina’s Maximiliano Pérez received the Best Sommelier Award for his wine-driven interpretations of local terroir. Ttássia Magalhães was awarded Latin America’s Best Female Chef for her leadership of an all-women kitchen team in São Paulo.

The awards also recognized national leaders: Maito in Panama City (No. 18), Sublime in Guatemala City (No. 19), Cordero in Caracas (No. 29), and Sikwa in San José (No. 43) were named the best restaurants in their respective countries. Seven new entries joined the 2025 ranking, including Afluente in Bogotá (No. 34), El Mercado in Buenos Aires (No. 27), Arami in La Paz (No. 48), and Demo Magnolia, Yum Cha and Karai by Mitsuharu in Santiago.

Oda in Bogotá received the Sustainable Restaurant Award for its focus on hyper-local sourcing. Additional previously announced prizes included Chef Tita of the Dominican Republic winning the Champions of Change Award, Kjolle receiving the Art of Hospitality Award, and Guatemala’s Ana being named the American Express One To Watch.

In 2017, after El Chato had recently opened its doors to the public, The City Paper profiled the venue and sat down to talk with the young, dynamic chef. The restaurant’s location on Calle 65 No.3B-76 remains the same, and reservations are required.

 

El Chato: A Bogotá restaurant on par with the very best