Mexico City-Acapulco Air Route in Decline

(Acapulco, NA 2 July) Data obtained from the Civil Aviation Authorities show that the air route between Mexico City and Acapulco has shown the third worst performance in the nation’s network from 2009 to 2010, with a 14 percent decline in passenger traffic. Only the routes from Monterrey to Cuidad Juárez and Mexico City-Veracruz showed larger declines. The Juan N. Álvarez airport reported a decrease of 500,000 passengers in the last two years.

Meanwhile, Cancun declined by less than 1 percent, aided by a 62 percent increase in passenger traffic from Guadalajara. Huatalco, in Oaxaca, another competing tourist destination, increased by 2 percent during the same period. The route between Mexico City and La Paz increased by 31 percent. In the federal government’s list of the 89 principal international routes into Mexico, neither Acapulco nor Zihuatanejo appear. Cancun is listed with 13 of them.

Cargo traffic has similarly been affected. Puerto Vallarta tops the top ten list in both international and domestic cargo flights, and Acapulco does not appear.

According to records at the Juan N. Álvarez International airport, in 2008 269,303 international passengers arrived; in 2009 the number dropped to 202,630; and in 2010 it fell further to 172,079.