To Mexico by Air: A Legacy of Commercial Airline Service between the United States and Mexico

To Mexico by Air: A Legacy of Commercial Airline Service between the United States and Mexico

Relations between the United States and Mexico have been profoundly influenced by the exchange and flow of people, goods, and ideas across the nearly two thousand-mile border that these nations share. Conceivably, one of the most important events to have influenced this movement was the development of commercial air routes between the two countries during the twentieth century.

Beginning in 1929, with Pan American Airway's purchase of Mexicana de Aviación, transnational service was launched between Brownsville, Texas and Mexico City. By the 1930s, the airline was successfully promoting Mexico as a highly desirable tourist destination steeped in romance and history. During the 1940s, Aeronaves de México also came under Pan American's reign and enabled the company to establish service through most of the country. During the postwar era, service expanded at a rapid pace as more airlines added flights and linked numerous destinations between the two countries.

Since the deregulation of the 1970s, the air corridors crossing the United States-Mexico border have become increasingly crowded with a daily flow of tourism, immigration, and transnational trade. This exhibition presents objects and images from the airlines that have played a pivotal role in establishing and maintaining air services between the United States and Mexico. These include aircraft models, airline promotional objects, in-flight service items, and uniform hats and insignia.

©2011 by the San Francisco Airport Commission. All rights reserved