While the winter season is already underway, airlines are preparing for a "sunny destination season" that will last well into the end of many colleges' spring breaks.
Delta (DAL) -), Spirit (SAVE) -) and American Airlines (AAL) -) are all waiting for construction of the new airport in Tulum to finish in order to launch new routes there while JetBlue Airways (JBLU) -) and Frontier Airlines (FRON) -) have significantly upped their flights to Puerto Rico from various U.S. cities.
Related: Delta adds a route U.S. tourists have been begging for
Setting its sights on the city best known for beachfront resorts and partying spring breakers, American Airlines has significantly increased its network of Cancun flights. Earlier this month, it launched three new routes to Cancun International Airport (CUN) from Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and Nashville. Each of these flights will run once a week from December and until the end of March.
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'More flights than any other U.S. carrier...'
This comes on top of more new seasonal routes to other resort towns in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula: Cozumel from Dallas and Merida from Miami. Now running 18 nonstop flights to Cancun from different American cities, American Airlines now also has the bragging rights of having "more flights than any other U.S. carrier to the white sand beaches, impressive archaeological sites and vibrant culture of Cancun."
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During the winter season, Cancun flights are available from Austin, Boston, Columbus, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Dallas-Fort Worth, New York, Phoenix, Charlotte, Miami, Chicago, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, Nashville, Raleigh-Durham, Kansas City and St. Louis — every major center save for some on the West Coast served by airlines like Delta (DAL) -) and Alaska Airlines (ALK) -).
"With 40 peak-day flights this winter, American provides plenty of options for customers to take in all that Cancun and the Riviera Maya has to offer this winter," the airline said in a statement.
While Mexico has been a popular destination for U.S. beach seekers for decades due to its location just south of the border, its popularity exploded when international borders first started opening up after the pandemic. During an October earnings call, Delta's CEO said that the country remains "a great source of strength" for the airline going forward into 2024.
Mexico demand is yet to soften and airlines are jumping on it
Tapping into that demand, local authorities have sped up construction of the new Felipe Carrillo Puerto International Airport in Tulum after what was once a sleepy Mayan town a two-hour drive from Cancun exploded in popularity. Then a local airline called Viva Aerobus launched six new routes from U.S. cities like Austin and San Francisco to Monterrey in the northeastern Mexican state of Nuevo León.
As a result, airlines have been competing with one another to carve out market space both with routes to major resort destinations from regional U.S. cities and new flights to smaller Mexican beach towns and regional centers that remain untapped but are seeing increasing interest.
"Next year, Delta customers will benefit from the airline’s largest-ever spring break schedule in Mexico, as the airline will offer 10% more seat capacity this year on 55 peak-day flights to eight cities across the country," Delta said of its own expansion in to the country.
