The Cancun Airport (or mostly known as Cancun International Airport) operations are growing consistently. About 528 operations a day, by 39 airlines, according to reports from Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste (ASUR). According to Asur, on August 30th, they estimated 259 arrivals, 103 of which are domestic and 156 international, and 269 departures, including 105 within Mexico and 164 outside our borders. This is just a glimpse of how Cancun Airport is sweeping operation numbers.
Increasing number of international flights
Cancun’s airport took 39.1% of the total number of international travelers arriving in Mexico during the first half of the year. The tourist destination showed an 83% increase compared to last year by attracting 9.9 million people, according to figures from the Federal Civil Aviation Agency (AFAC).
Cancun left behind Mexico City, the country’s most important airport, which only had a 25.3% share in the total number of foreign passengers. San José del Cabo, with 8.7%; Guadalajara, with 8.1%; and Puerto Vallarta, with 7.4%.
Cancun’s results are related to the destination’s good performance in attracting international tourists, especially from the United States. In the first half of the year, Cancun had a 10.9 percent growth in foreign traveler attractions against 2019 levels.
Cancun at is best
According to data from the Ministry of Tourism of Quintana Roo, hotel occupancy in Cancun during June averaged 80.2%, while in the Riviera Maya it was 81%.
According to the Cancun Airport site:
“…Mexico never closed its borders during the Covid-19 pandemic. Even though the volume of passengers lowered, the airport kept on going. Today, Cancun Airport has increased the traffic of travelers and has even exceeded the volume of passengers in comparison to 2019.”
The Secretary of Tourism, anticipated this summer to have had an average occupancy rate of more than 85%, which will surpass the figures for 2019.
For its part, the Quintana Roo Tourism Promotion Council (CPTQ) estimated that for the second part of the year it will have more than 50 thousand flights, which will mean 27% more than before the pandemic.This includes routes from 125 cities in 30 countries.
With this in mind, Cancun expects to attract more than 16 million tourists by the end of 2022.
Tenth busiest airport in the world
In the first five months of the year, Cancun International Airport (CUN) has mobilized 1 million passengers more than in the same period of 2019. This means that the terminal surpassed by 10% the numbers reported a year before the onset of the global health crisis.
The Secretary of Tourism of Quintana Roo, Bernardo Cueto, pointed out on his social networks that the Cancun International Airport is now the tenth most visited in the world according to the Airports Council International (ACI), for the first time in history, which he celebrated with a video in which he pointed out that it is indeed an example of economic recovery for the state.
The Cancun airport was placed in the 10th place of the ACI after its relevance in the last two years where it became the tourist center of Mexico and Latin America, this is due to the fact that the terminal was never closed despite the health situation that confronted the world during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Airlines gearing up to meet demand
As for today, we can see many companies overcoming the pandemic crisis, an Cancun Airport has done a great job with this. With many countries closed to international travel during the pandemic, carriers were able to quickly shift capacity to Cancun. Now with much of the world open again, matching capacity with demand is trickier. Since the beginning of the year, airlines such as American, United, and Sun country have all announced new or additional flights and routes to Cancun.
Most major hubs for US airlines offer service to Cancun, and almost all Americans can get there by making only one connection.
The government has also been proactive in keeping visitors safe.
Over the summer, hundreds of soldiers were deployed to patrol area beaches and undercover police patrol hot spots frequented by foreigners. The plan is for that to continue to ensure travelers have a safe, relaxing experience while in the country.
