Cancún Tourism Plummets Amid Aviation Crisis

Cancún has been the most severely impacted tourist destination by the ongoing aviation industry crisis. This year, the city has grappled with a significant decrease in available airplane seats and an increase in ticket prices. From January to September, over 1.6 million passengers were lost due to reduced seating availability on domestic routes to major destinations in the country, according to a report from the Center for Advanced Research in Sustainable Tourism (Starc) of Anahuac University.

The situation worsened in October, with the Cancún terminal reporting a decrease of 1,868,517 passengers in transit. The Cancún-Santa Lucía route from Felipe Ángeles International Airport is the only one reporting growth, with a 51.1% increase from January to September this year compared to the same period last year. All other routes have reported significant declines.

The aviation industry's struggles are largely due to technical issues with the Airbus A320neo family airplanes, leading to increased ticket prices and decreased seat availability on the ten main domestic routes.

Cancún has suffered the most significant loss in connectivity from national airlines due to its high volume of traffic. The Mexico-Cancún route reported the largest contraction, with a decline of 22.2% from January to September this year. The Monterrey Cancún route also saw a decrease of 14.5%.

Other domestic routes with significant declines include Guadalajara-Tijuana with a 16% drop, Mexico-Puerto Vallarta with a 9% drop, and Mexico-Tijuana and Mexico-Mérida both with an 8.5% drop.

Despite the high volume of operations at Cancún International Airport, the lack of airplane seats is impacting the tourism sector, which has seen declines in domestic visitor numbers. This is a significant blow as domestic visitors are its second source of income.

The latest report from ASUR for October shows a 14.1% decrease in domestic passenger traffic at the Cancún terminal compared to the same period last year, with a total of 8,528,000 passengers. This is a loss of 1,395,786 domestic passengers. International passenger numbers have also decreased by 2.8%, with 16,677,000 tourists arriving, representing a loss of 472,731 international tourists. Overall, from January to October, 1,868,517 passengers in transit have been lost.