Cancun, Riviera Maya, Q.R. — Air connections to Cancun continue to increase with the gradual revival of the state’s tourist industry with arrivals from the US and now, Canada.
During the past week, air activity has continued to increase with flights from the United States as well as the revival of some Canadian flights. On Friday, Cancun received the first Air Canada flight to and from Toronto. It was the first since the suspension due to the pandemic.
The Cancun International Airport has seen a slight increase in airport operations with 30 at the beginning of the week to 62 as of Friday. Flights coming and going are both national and international.
According to managing company ASUR, the international airlines arriving at the Cancun airport include American, United, Sun Country and Air Canada with flights originating from New York, Orlando, Philadelphia, Charlotte, Chicago, Houston, Toronto, Miami and Dallas.
Darío Flota Ocampo, general director of the Tourism Promotion Council of Quintana Roo, says the outlook for the upcoming week is very positive with the announcement of gradual increases in routes and air frequencies.
He acknowledged that for now, the flights are still a long way from arriving full, but the fact that frequencies have increased is positive since airlines are seeing the potential for recovery.
“Today we have practically twice as many frequencies as we had last week. This weekend, for Saturday and Sunday, two more routes are incorporated. We currently have Miami, Orlando, Houston, Dallas, Charlotte, Philadelphia, Chicago, New York with Detroit and Baltimore being added,” he said.
He mentioned that many of those arriving are owners of timeshares who were unable to travel during April and May. He says those who have timeshare memberships are always the first to return to the destination because they overcome uncertainty or fear faster, since they are frequent travelers and were waiting for the opportunity to return.
“Although hotel occupancy is very low, the reality is that they were waiting for the reopening… we are going to see in the next 15 days the reinstallation of many airlines between the United States and Cancun. Some flights to Cozumel are also starting and a gradual increase in the occupation of hotels and reactivation of different tourist products will begin to normalize,” he said.