Summary
- Aeromexico announces 14 weekly flights from Mexico City to Tulum International, adding to its existing routes in the Yucatan peninsula.
- Viva Aerobus will have five new routes from Tulum International, including Mexico City, Guadalajara, Monterrey, and Tijuana.
- Volaris has not yet announced any routes to Tulum International, but the airline has expressed interest in flying to the new airport.
Mexico’s new Tulum International Airport (to be opened on December 1, 2023) has its initial new routes announced. On Thursday, Viva Aerobus and Aeromexico released the first commercial services they will operate once the airport is inaugurated later this year.
Aeromexico’s new routes
Starting December 1, Aeromexico will offer 14 weekly flights from Mexico City International Airport to Tulum International. The airline will employ its Embraer E190 aircraft on these services.
José Zapata, Vice President of Sales Mexico at Aeromexico, said the company is pleased to participate in the inauguration of this airport because “many of our customers have Tulum and the southern Riviera Maya region as their final destinations, which are international landmarks due to the tourism richness our country offers.”
By reaching Tulum International, Aeromexico will serve five airports in the Yucatan peninsula: Cancún (CUN), Merida (MID), Chetumal (CTM), Cozumel (CZM), and now Tulum. The airline offers over 221,000 seats per month to this region.
Viva Aerobus’ new routes
The ultra-low-cost carrier is not getting behind on the plans to serve Tulum International. Fulfilling its promise of being among the first to operate from the new airport, Viva Aerobus announced five new routes to Tulum.
Starting on December 1, Viva Aerobus will fly from the new Tulum Airport to Mexico City (serving both Mexico City International –MEX – and the new Felipe Ángeles International Airport –NLU), Guadalajara (GDL), Monterrey (MTY), and Tijuana (TIJ).
Viva Aerobus will fly daily from MEX and MTY to Tulum. The other three routes will have three weekly flights. Juan Carlos Zuazua, Chief Executive Officer of Viva Aerobus, said,
“There's a great market opportunity for a destination like Tulum, which benefits from a prime location to address and drive demand in the Riviera Maya. We're excited to connect to this new airport.”
What do we know about Volaris?
Mexico’s other ultra-low-cost carrier, Volaris, has not yet announced any new routes to Tulum International Airport. Nonetheless, the airline’s executives have recently signaled interest in flying to this new airport. We’ll have to wait and see if they announce something shortly.
What do we know about Tulum International Airport?
Following the construction of the Felipe Ángeles International Airport in Mexico City, the Mexican government announced it would build a new airport for the Yucatan peninsula in the municipality of Felipe Carrillo Puerto.
Tulum International Airport, in theory, is set to help support the tourist demand in the Caribbean and ease the saturation levels at Cancun International Airport, the leading international gateway in the region.
The Mexican Army will also administer this new airport; the required investment to construct it was around $48 million (or about 950 million pesos). Tulum International will have the capacity to serve 5.5 million passengers and receive up to 32,000 yearly operations. The Mexican Army expects 75% of incoming passengers to be foreign. Nonetheless, for Tulum to be a commercial success, the country has to recover the Federal Aviation Administration’s Category 1 rating, which would allow carriers to fly to and from the United States.
Are you excited about a new airport opening in Mexico’s Caribbean region? Do you think Tulum International can be a good alternative to Cancun International? Let us know in the comments below.