| | |  Travel & Outdoors 
With Tourism Up, U.S. Airlines Increase Flights to Mexico
 Glynna Prentice - International Living
go to original
October 28, 2010
| | Mexico tourism is up again, so U.S. airlines are adding more flights to the country. | |
Tourism to Mexico is up by nearly 20% over last year. As a result, U.S. airlines - many of which dropped Mexico-bound flights in 2009 after the swine flu outbreak - are adding on flights to Mexico once more.
They’re also rushing to fill the void created by the recent bankruptcy of Mexicana, one of Mexico’s largest air carriers, and the cancellation of its flights to and from the U.S.
U.S. airlines that have recently expanded their Mexico coverage include American, Delta, Frontier, United Continental Holdings (parent company of the newly-merged Continental and United Airlines), and U.S. Airways. Southwest Airlines will also join this group (with service to Cancún) if its proposed merger with AirTran is approved.
American now offers new nonstop seasonal flights (mostly November to April) to Acapulco, Cozumel, Puerto Vallarta and Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo from either Chicago or Dallas/Ft. Worth. These are in addition to the dozen or more destinations American already flies to. (See a list here.)
Delta offers flights to Guadalajara, Mexico City, Puerto Vallarta, Loreto (Baja California Sur) and Monterrey, as well as seasonal flights to Cancún and Cozumel.
Continental has recently added service to Tuxtla Gutiérrez, capital of Chiapas. This brings Continental up to 30 Mexican destinations served - more than any other non-Mexican airline. Continental has also gradually begun increasing the number of flights available on existing routes. (Continental cut back the number of flights on some routes last year due to the drop in demand.)
United Airlines has announced flights from Los Angeles to Mexico City, starting this month. And Frontier Airlines offers seasonal service (mostly winter) from several U.S. destinations to the resort cities Cabo San Lucas, Cancún, Cozumel, Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo, Mazatlán and Puerto Vallarta.
U.S. Airways flies to 11 destinations throughout Mexico (see a map here). It has recently added daily flights from Charlotte, North Carolina, to two of those destinations, Puerto Vallarta and Los Cabos.
More than half of Mexico’s 7.1 million tourists this year - an estimated 4.3 million - are from the U.S. An additional 1.4 million Mexico-bound tourists are Canadian.
U.S. airlines are filling a gap in demand that Mexican airlines cannot fill. In July, a month before Mexicana’s bankruptcy, the U.S.’s Federal Aviation Commission downgraded Mexico’s airline safety status from Category 1 to Category 2, saying that Mexico did not meet international safety standards set by the International Civil Aviation Organization. The downgrade applies to all Mexican airlines. Airlines in Category 2 are prohibited from expanding flights to the U.S., though they can maintain existing service.
The FAA has provided no specifics on why Mexico has been downgraded, though it has said that Mexico is “making progress” toward compliance. |
|
| |
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us