In the first five months of the year, the routes that connected Mexico with Texas were the ones with the highest traffic in the international segment, which, although it has had a slow recovery in general after the pandemic, has found a particular boost in these routes due trends such as vaccine tourism.
The Dallas Forth Worth to Cancun route was the busiest between last January and May, with a flow of just over 362,000 passengers. This was followed by connections from Houston to Mexico City (which carried around 328,000 people) and Cancun (316,300 passengers), which ranked second and third when before the pandemic they were the eighth and sixth busiest routes, respectively.
Other routes with the greatest movement were Chicago-Cancun and Los Angeles-Guadalajara, according to data from the Ministry of Communications and Transportation (SCT). In the 10 routes with the highest traffic there was an increase compared to the first five months of 2020, which incorporates a mixed effect of the pandemic, with the first quarter with few drops in air traffic. But compared to 2019, a general decrease is perceived, although not on all journeys.
This has been the case of the Mexico City-Houston route, which in May registered a maximum of 111,554 passengers, when until before the pandemic the largest flow had been just over 88,000. Similarly, the Mexico City-Los Angeles route, which had a weak start to the year, tripled its traffic in February, March and April, going from around 20,000 passengers to more than 81,000 users.
Of the main international routes before the pandemic, the great absent ones are those that connected with Europe and South America. This is the case of Mexico City-Madrid, which in 2019 was the fourth with the highest traffic – and the one with the highest income in the Latin American region – and which remains at levels around a third of pre-COVID-19 levels .
Other absent are the flights between Mexico City and Bogotá, the fifth largest international route in 2019, which remains at a quarter of the pre-pandemic levels; and flights to Canada, where cities such as Toronto and Montreal were disconnected from Mexico after flights were suspended for three months, from January 30 to April 30.
Expectations for the summer point to several of these cities. According to the Ministry of Tourism (Sectur), between July and August the arrival of 20.2 million tourists in the country is expected, almost three times more than what was perceived in the same period of 2020.
Beach destinations are where the most traffic is expected. In Cancun, the arrival of 1.5 million tourists is expected, while in Acapulco the reception of travelers is estimated at 1.03 million, and in Mazatlán by 710,000 tourists.
