Tulum, Q.R. — Air Canada is the latest airline to announce the scale back of its flights into Tulum International. The airline, which was set to resume its Ottawa to Tulum and Quebec City to Tulum routes, has canceled the planned seasonal service, at least for this year.
The airline has made the decision to cancel those two routes due to a plunge in tourist demand. They have also reduced their Montreal to Tulum flights from five times per week to three.
Last week during an earnings call, Air Canada’s Chief Commercial Officer Mark Galardo said “I think it’s no secret that the industry in general put a lot of incremental capacity into Tulum. You’re seeing some carriers rationalize a bit.” He says Air Canada will continue to serve Tulum from both Toronto and Montreal.
The Canadian airline is not the only carrier making changes to their Tulum winter schedule. United Airlines has withdrawn its Boston route into Tulum and canceled a proposed Denver to Tulum route.
However, Canada’s WestJet will continue its twice-weekly departures from Toronto and weekly flight from Calgary into Tulum International.
Airlines were hoping to capitalize on the region’s booming tourism potential with the opening of the Tulum International Airport in late 2023. However, according to the airlines, service reductions are being felt into Tulum as they recalibrate their expectations amid a mismatch between supply and demand.
The initial hype of ambitious traveler forecasts into the new Tulum airport has failed to meet airline expectations. The rapid expansion of routes into Tulum International was met with underwhelming passenger numbers. The result has been the reduction of some airline routes and the cancellation of others.
“We ourselves in Tulum are going to pare back a little bit of our service there and really kinda double down on Cancun, which performs quite well for us,” said Air Canada’s Galardo.
