New Insights into the Growing Mexico-USA Air Route Market

Driven by a growing “travel ready” middle class, a relatively stable economy since the wake of the 2008-09 recession, the entry into market of one of the most successful budget carriers in the world, and the largest VFR market of any international source market (according to the most recent reliable estimates, Mexican Americans make up about 11 percent of the United States’ population, with nearly 35 million U.S. residents identified as being of full or partial Mexican ancestry), Mexico is on track to nearly double the number of visitors it sends to the United States since 2010.

According to the U.S. National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO), 13.47 million visitors from Mexico came to the U.S. in 2010. NTTO has forecast that 21.2 visitors from Mexico will come to the USA in 2020—a 57 percent increase. The year, 2010, is also the year that Mexicana Airlines went bankrupt and ceased operations. Volaris, which had been established as a low-cost domestic carrier in 2005, took over several slots at Mexico City’s airport that had been owned by Mexicana and its subsidiaries. Volaris now flies to more than 20 international destinations, with almost all of them in the USA.

One major consequence of the expansion of Volaris has been the overall increase of air traffic from Mexico into the United States, with low fares in some cases rivaling those charged by buses serving the same routes. And traffic is expected to increase even further once a pending Air Transport Agreement between the U.S. and Mexico is ratified by the United States (Mexican officials approved it in December.)

It should be noted that the table below does not include the lesser traveled routes used by Volaris, which also flies from its locations in Mexico to U.S. cities such as Oakland, Fresno, Sacramento, Phoenix, Fort Lauderdale and San Antonio.

Top International Routes And Passengers Carried

2015