Dieciocho de Mayo Airport

No official reason for the closure has been published. The most probable cause is a combination of economic factors, including a lack of demand for air services in the small municipality of Jiménez and insufficient funding for the significant costs of runway and facility maintenance. This is a common fate for small, rural airstrips in Mexico that lack consistent commercial or private traffic to remain viable.

The airport is completely abandoned and in a state of advanced decay. As of the latest satellite imagery, the paved runway is still clearly visible from the air but is severely cracked, weathered, and extensively overgrown with grass and shrubs, making it unusable. The few small buildings on the site, likely former hangars or administrative offices, appear derelict. The land has not been repurposed and the remnants of the airfield are slowly being reclaimed by nature.

Dieciocho de Mayo Airport was a small, local airfield serving the municipality of Jiménez, Tamaulipas. It was not a major commercial airport and did not handle scheduled passenger flights. Its operations were primarily focused on:
- **General Aviation:** Supporting private aircraft for local business owners, ranchers, and individuals.
- **Agricultural Aviation:** Potentially used for crop-dusting (fumigación aérea) aircraft, a common activity in the agricultural regions of Tamaulipas.
- **Air Taxi / Charter:** May have handled occasional air taxi or charter flights.
Its significance was purely local, providing air access to a relatively remote rural area before ground transportation infrastructure was improved. The ICAO code 'MX-1696' is an unofficial identifier used by third-party data aggregators, not an official code assigned by the ICAO, which further highlights its status as a minor, likely private or municipal, airstrip.

There are no known plans, proposals, or prospects for reopening Dieciocho de Mayo Airport. The significant cost required to completely rebuild the runway, taxiways, and facilities, combined with a lack of apparent economic or logistical demand in the region, makes its revival highly improbable. The area is adequately served by ground transportation and the larger General Pedro J. Méndez International Airport (MMCV) in the state capital, Ciudad Victoria, is located approximately 90 km (56 miles) to the south.