It appears as if travel demand to Tulum isn’t as high as initially expected as airlines continue cutting service from Felipe Carrillo Puerto International Airport (TQO). The airport opened to great fanfare just over a year ago with many carriers offering daily, or more than daily, frequencies on multiple routes (U.S. carriers began service to the airport in March 2024). However, in recent months, we’ve seen them pull back significantly.
When the airport first opened, there were nonstop flights on American, Delta, JetBlue, and United to nine different destinations in the United States, ranging from Los Angeles to New York.
Today, as first reported by IshrionA, United Airlines became the latest carrier to reduce service to Tulum. The Chicago based carrier launched service to Tulum in March 2024 with service from its Chicago O’Hare (ORD), Houston-Intercontinental (IAH), Los Angeles (LAX), and Newark (EWR) hubs.
Now, United is reportedly eliminating its LAX route entirely and cutting service to Chicago and Newark outside of the winter months. Houston will continue to see year round service to Tulum.
United Airlines cuts back Tulum (TQO):
— Ishrion Aviation (@IshrionA) December 6, 2024
• TQO to Los Angeles (LAX) canceled/not returning
• TQO to Chicago (ORD) suspended March 30 to October 26
• TQO to Newark (EWR) suspended May 20 to October 26
United will continue flying 2x daily TQO to Houston (IAH) during the summer. pic.twitter.com/7CCgh5EZXg
United Joins American and JetBlue in reducing service to the airport in recent weeks. JetBlue will make its route between Tulum and New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) a seasonal only service. American is suspending flights between Charlotte-Douglas International Airport (CLT) and Tulum, though it will continue to serve Tulum from both Dallas Ft. Worth (DFW) and Miami (MIA).
Delta is the only airline that has not cut any routes to Tulum. The carrier was the most conservative of the Big 3 when launching service, starting with a single route to its Atlanta (ATL) superhub. Since then, Delta has actually added winter seasonal routes from Detroit (DTW) and Minneapolis/St. Paul (MSP)
I visited Tulum before the airport opened and the once sleepy town was already overrun with tourists. Cancun International Airport (CUN) is located roughly 90 minutes up the road and has much more service to destinations around the world. This certainly plays a factor into traffic numbers in Tulum as it is much easier to fly nonstop into Cancun and get a ground transfer or rental car to Tulum rather than connect and still have a lengthy transfer to the hotel as TQO is still an hour drive from the beach.
Summary
Airlines continue to cut service to Tulum which shouldn’t come as much of a surprise given the location of the airport and how much capacity was initially placed in the market. Having the massive Cancun International Airport located an hour further up the road will always make it difficult to fill seats to TQO, especially given the lack of ULCC competition from the U.S. that helps bring fares down.
