Volaris, the ultra-low-cost airline serving Mexico, the United States and Central America, will operate a new route from Oakland to Merida, State of Yucatán.
Starting on January 18, Volaris will operate an A320 type aircraft with 174 available seats. It will touch Mayan lands every Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday. Ticket sales are now available on the airline’s portal.
The new route follows months of work that the Yucatán Tourism Board (Sefotur) has done with airlines to gradually and in an orderly manner reactivate air service into the state, based on the needs of each destination, and to recover from the global Covid-19 pandemic, which has seriously affected tourism and, consequently, the airline industry. In keeping with the policies of the state’s Economic Reactivation Program, Sefotur kept in constant communication with the different airlines serving Yucatán, enrolling them in the Good Health Practices Certification of Yucatán program and informing them of the health-care measures implemented, always prioritizing the health of the Yucatecan population.
Volaris now is operating six domestic Mexico routes to Yucatán with very good results. The Oakland service will be the carrier’s first international route to Mérida, uniting the city with the Bay Area’s Yucatecan community and fulfilling another of the commitments agreed to with Sefotur, said Miguel Aguíñiga, Director of Market Development at Volaris.
According to Yucatán Minister of Tourism Michelle Fridman Hirsch, the new route means the state will now enjoy connectivity with the U.S. via three regional points: on the East Coast, with Miami; the Midwest and South, through Houston; and the West Coast, with Oakland, an important anchor for visitors from San Francisco, San Jose and Sacramento.
Since the full closure of tourist activities in Yucatán, air connectivity has recovered significantly. Of the total of 13 domestic routes that operated until February 2020, nine of these had been restored by December, equivalent to 69.2 percent of national routes, or 17,451 seats. Three of four former international routes — to Miami, Houston and Havana — have been reinstated, equivalent to 75% of prior capacity. With the addition of Oakland, Yucatán will boast a total of four international routes operating before the end of the year; planned flights to a fifth international destination — Toronto, Canada — remain on hold for 2021.
Volaris will go from two to four weekly flights on its domestic Mérida-Tijuana route as of Dec. 4; United Airlines, which received the first authorization to reactivate international service, on its Houston-Mérida route Dec. 1, will increase flights on that route from six to seven weekly as of Dec. 17, representing an increase from almost 600 weekly seats to 1,050 by the end of 2020.
While Aeroméxico operates 44 weekly flights on its Mexico City-Mérida route, Volaris will increase its frequencies from 17 to 19 weekly flights on the same route as of Dec. 16. Viva Aerobús, meanwhile, will go from 15 to 18 flights between those cities on Dec.18, and will increase weekly flights to Guadalajara from four to five as of Dec. 19.
In total, Yucatán has recovered 131 weekly flights and more than 19,000 seats on domestic and international routes.
“Since the beginning of the administration headed by Gov. Mauricio Vila, we have worked altogether with the airport and different airlines to increase connectivity of Yucatán, including maritime and terrestrial, through different alliances and in improving our biosecurity protocols that allow us to generate confidence to our visitors and allow us to protect those who work in this industry, but also, to reopen tourism in Yucatán, taking care of all the Yucatecans,” said Minister Fridman Hirsch.
For more information, please visit: volaris.com.
