An airport on the US-Mexico border has become one of only a few in the world spanning two countries with the opening of an aerial pedestrian bridge connecting terminals on both sides.

The first arrivals came on an Aeromexico flight from Mexico City to the decades-old Tijuana international airport on Wednesday and walked across a 390ft (119m) bridge to a new $120m terminal in San Diego.

Target customers are the estimated 60% of Tijuana airport passengers who come to the United States, about 2.6 million in 2014. Until now they drove about 15 minutes to a congested land crossing on the heavily fortified divide, where they waited up to several hours to enter San Diego by car or on foot. The airport bridge is a five-minute walk to a US border inspector.

“What a difference,” said Elba Hernandez, 69, who flew to Tijuana from Guadalajara after visiting family and walked across the airport bridge to San Diego, where her sister picked her up.

Travelers walk along a bridge towards US Customs and Immigration while using the Cross Border Xpress pedestrian bridge between San Diego and the Tijuana airport, Photograph: Mike Blake/Reuters

Industry experts said they were only aware of one other cross-border airport – in the European Union between Basel, Switzerland, and France’s Upper Rhine region. It carries none of the political freight of San Diego and Tijuana. Mexicans who ran across the border illegally overwhelmed the Border Patrol until the mid-1990s, when new fences and additional agents heralded a massive surge in US enforcement.

Immigration across the Mexican border has also been the subject of hard political rhetoric and legislative wrangling during Barack Obama’s presidency, and in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election.

Traffic on the Mexican side passes under the walking bridge from Tijuana international airport, left, to San Diego, right. Photograph: Lenny Ignelzi/AP

Cross Border Xpress, one of the largest privately operated US air terminals, will charge $18 each way for ticketed passengers. Much of that will go to pay the salaries of US border inspectors.

A group of US and Mexican investors that includes the Chicago billionaire Sam Zell expects to make money on a duty-free shop, rental car companies, restaurants and other concessions. The terminal occupies less than half their 55-acre (22ha) parcel, and the city of San Diego has approved a 340-room hotel, shopping center and gas station.

With Associated Press