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Tag: the airport

  • Almost 2 years in, US airlines are scaling back service to Tulum’s airport

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    U.S. airlines continue to pull back from serving Tulum International Airport in Mexico as demand lags, with travelers still favoring the Cancún International Airport as their gateway to the country’s Caribbean beaches.

    The airport opened to passengers on Dec. 1, 2023, and after an initial surge in flights, it has steadily seen airlines pull down capacity since then. Heading into spring break this year, airlines were flying fewer seats than in the previous spring, and the downward trend continues.

    American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, JetBlue, and United Airlines will still to serve Tulum, but with thousands fewer seats over the course of this winter compared to winter 2024-2025.

    Data from Cirium, an aviation data analytics company, shows that all airlines are planning to fly fewer seats to Tulum in the months ahead.

    In Dec. 2024, for example, U.S. airlines had the capacity to send 41,503 passengers to Tulum with flights from various gateways. In Dec. 2025, the combined U.S. airline capacity to Tulum is planned to be just 29,511 seats. United Airlines, which will have flights to Tulum from both Newark and Houston this winter, is the only U.S. carrier planning to send more than 10,000 seats to Tulum in the coming months.

    Tourists walk along a beach with heavy clouds caused by the proximity of tropical storm Franklin that is near the coast of Quintana Roo, in Tulum, Mexico, on Aug. 7, 2017.

    This kind of pulling back isn’t unusual as airlines adjust to actual demand at a new airport, but carriers cutting capacity is not a promising sign for the airport’s popularity.

    “Airlines will first guess the demand for flights based on the data tools at their disposal, offer a schedule for sale to test their hypothesis, review the results, and add or pare as they see fit to ensure they are at least covering their trip costs, and the opportunity cost of deploying aircraft, crew, and fuel,” Mike Arnot, a spokesperson for Cirium, previously told USA TODAY. “Many low-cost airlines are quick to test and reduce flying from a market or exit altogether. Larger carriers will be more conservative.”

    View of the Punta Piedra beach in Tulum, Quintana Roo state, Mexico, on Nov. 10, 2022.

    View of the Punta Piedra beach in Tulum, Quintana Roo state, Mexico, on Nov. 10, 2022.

    Airlines like Delta and American have reduced the number of cities with direct flights to Tulum. Spirit Airlines, amid its financial difficulties and relatively soft demand, pulled out of the airport before even beginning its promised service at all.

    It’s always possible the airport could make a passenger popularity rebound as traveler demand shifts over time, but for now, it seems likely Tulum will continue playing second fiddle to its neighbor up the road.

    Zach Wichter is a travel reporter and writes the Cruising Altitude column for USA TODAY. He is based in New York and you can reach him at zwichter@usatoday.com.

    This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Why airlines are pulling back from Tulum almost 2 years after opening

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  • Dubai plans to move its busy international airport to a $35 billion new facility within 10 years

    Dubai plans to move its busy international airport to a $35 billion new facility within 10 years

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    Dubai International Airport, the world’s busiest for international travel, will move its operations to the city-state’s second, sprawling airfield in its southern desert reaches “within the next 10 years” in a project worth nearly $35 billion, its ruler said Sunday.

    Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s announcement marks the latest chapter in the rebound of its long-haul carrier Emirates after the coronavirus pandemic grounded international travel. Plans have been on the books for years to move the operations of the airport known as DXB to Al Maktoum International Airport at Dubai World Central which had also been delayed by the repercussions of the sheikhdom’s 2009 economic crisis.

    “We are building a new project for future generations, ensuring continuous and stable development for our children and their children in turn,” Sheikh Mohammed said in an online statement. “Dubai will be the world’s airport, its port, its urban hub and its new global center.”

    The announcement included computer-rendered images of curving, white terminal reminiscent of the traditional Bedouin tents of the Arabian Peninsula. The airport will include five parallel runways and 400 aircraft gates, the announcement said. The airport now has just two runways, like Dubai International Airport.

    The financial health of the carrier Emirates has served as a barometer for the aviation industry worldwide and the wider economic health of this city-state. Dubai and the airline rebounded quickly from the pandemic by pushing forward with tourism even as some countries more slowly came out of their pandemic crouch.

    The number of passengers flying through DXB surged last year beyond its total for 2019 with 86.9 million passengers. Its 2019 annual traffic was 86.3 million passengers. The airport had 89.1 million passengers in 2018 — its busiest-ever year before the pandemic, while 66 million passengers passed through in 2022.

    Earlier in February, Dubai announced its best-ever tourism numbers, saying it hosted 17.15 million international overnight visitors in 2023. Average hotel occupancy stood at around 77%. Its boom-and-bust real estate market remains on a hot streak, nearing all-time high valuations.

    But as those passenger numbers skyrocketed, it again put new pressure on the capacity of DXB, which remains constrained on all sides by residential neighborhoods and two major highways.

    Al Maktoum International Airport, some 45 kilometers (28 miles) away from DXB, opened in 2010 with one terminal. It served as a parking lot for Emirates’ double-decker Airbus A380s and other aircraft during the pandemic and slowly has come back to life with cargo and private flights in the time since. It also hosts the biennial Dubai Air Show and has a vast, empty desert in which to expand.

    The announcement by Sheikh Mohammed noted Dubai’s plans to expand further south. Already, its nearby Expo 2020 site has been offering homes for buyers.

    “As we build an entire city around the airport in Dubai South, demand for housing for a million people will follow,” Dubai’s ruler said. “It will host the world’s leading companies in the logistics and air transport sectors.”

    However, financial pressures have halted the move in the past. Dubai’s 2009 financial crisis, brought on by the Great Recession, forced Abu Dhabi to provide the city-state with a $20 billion bailout.

    Meanwhile, the city-state is still trying to recover after the heaviest rainfall ever recorded in the UAE, which disrupted flights and commerce for days.

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