Now Reading: A yr in, Tulum’s new airport is not taking off like airways hoped
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A yr in, Tulum’s new airport is not taking off like airways hoped
A yr in, Tulum’s new airport is not taking off like airways hoped
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- Tulum Worldwide Airport, opened in late 2022, has not met preliminary airline expectations for passenger quantity.
- Airways, together with Spirit, United, American, and Delta, have diminished the variety of flights and passenger capability to Tulum.
- Airways are utilizing information to regulate flight schedules and decide the fitting degree of service for the brand new airport.
When the brand new airport in Tulum opened final yr, it promised guests to Mexico’s Mayan Riviera a extra streamlined journey expertise to resorts past Cancún. Airways have been initially bullish on a brand new option to get their passengers to a preferred vacationer vacation spot, however a few yr and a half after opening, Felipe Carrillo Puerto Worldwide Airport in Tulum hasn’t but absolutely caught on.
“Launching a brand new airport is a big endeavor – particularly so for these which might be fully tourism dependent. Within the case of the Yucatan, Cancún has big model consciousness within the U.S. and Canada amongst solar worshippers and has for many years, with Cozumel second in model footprint and air site visitors,” Mike Arnot, a spokesperson for aviation information analytics firm Cirium, informed USA TODAY in an e mail. “For Tulum Airport, the construct might be a marathon, not a dash.”
A more in-depth take a look at the information from Cirium exhibits that airways have progressively scaled again their service to Tulum, and a few carriers have deserted the airport altogether.
In December 2023, Spirit Airways had deliberate 60 flights to Tulum for April 2024, representing a capability for greater than 10,000 passengers that month. By February 2024, the airline had axed its whole schedule to Tulum. For context: Spirit is fighting capability throughout its community as engine issues hold a few of its planes grounded and monetary shortfalls have led it to put off a few of its employees. However, it is not a terrific signal for a leisure-focused airline to tug out of a leisure market forward of spring break.
The airport was nonetheless ramping up service in March 2024, so it is laborious to check flights within the early a part of spring break final yr versus this yr.
“Airways will first guess the demand for flights based mostly on the information instruments at their disposal, supply a schedule on the market to check their speculation, assessment the outcomes, and add or pare as they see match to make sure they’re a minimum of overlaying their journey prices, and the chance price of deploying plane, crew, and gasoline,” Arnot stated. “Many low-cost airways are fast to check and scale back flying from a market or exit altogether. Bigger carriers might be extra conservative.”
It is commonplace for brand spanking new airports to have rising pains as vacationers adapt to new route choices. Airways usually flood the zone with flights on new routes to see what sticks after which pare issues again, however heading into Tulum’s second spring break – a time when the airport must be working with excessive demand – the numbers counsel it is not as in style with passengers as airways might initially have hoped.
Take United Airways’ schedule for example:
When United deliberate its spring 2024 flights, it initially meant to fly 94 departures from the U.S. to Tulum in April 2024, with a complete passenger capability of 16,826. However this yr, the airline scaled again.
In April 2025, United can have solely 60 flights to Tulum from the U.S., and it continues to trim the full capability it plans on that route, in keeping with Cirium information. In December 2024, these flights have been set to hold 10,740 passengers, however by February, United had minimize just a few hundred seats from the route for April.
The newest Cirium information exhibits United plans to fly solely 10,402 seats to Tulum from the U.S. subsequent month.
American Airways noticed an identical contraction.
In December 2023, American deliberate 120 flights to Tulum for April 2024. By April 2025, the airline had halved its schedule to simply 60 flights and was downgrading the passenger capability on these as effectively.
Delta Air Strains had a extra conservative begin to its companies at Tulum, planning simply 30 flights to the airport for April 2024, and truly had average development for April 2025, as much as 36 flights. Nonetheless, from December 2024 to February 2025, Delta minimize about 100 seats from flights to Tulum throughout its April schedule.
“For Tulum within the airways’ eyes, it is not such a lot a case of failure or success – thumbs up or down – however as an alternative utilizing information to find out the fitting provide of seats from the fitting locations, for the fitting time intervals,” Arnot stated.
For now, the airport stays within the trial section as airways tweak their schedules to seek out what works greatest for the brand new airport.
Zach Wichter is a journey reporter and writes the Cruising Altitude column for USA TODAY. He’s based mostly in New York and you may attain him at zwichter@usatoday.com.
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