Mexico Will Represent 50 percent of DFW’s International Market

Despite the pandemic-related crises, traffic to Mexico has grown considerably for the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW). In the next two years, the Latin American country is expected to represent 50 percent of DFW’s international market, reported A21.

“At one point of the pandemic, Mexico represented 80 percent of all our international travelers. Since then, this figure has decreased slightly, as long-range international routes have been reopened but Mexico has always been important and now it is even more so," said to A21 John Ackerman, Executive Vice President, Global Strategy and Development, DFW.

Although the pandemic boosted Mexican air traffic due to the closure of most international routes, the country was already the most important international destination for DFW, with 35 percent of its market share in 2019. The slow recovery of aviation markets across the world will continue making Mexico the main market for DFW, said Ackerman.

Long-range markets will have different recovery times. Asian routes, mainly the ones coming from China, will take a longer time to reestablish due to tensions between governments. “Our routes in Asia and China are well below pre-pandemic levels. China is not open… We estimate that this market will remain below its levels during the next year, because it does not seem that the governments of both countries are cooperating with each other,” said Ackerman.

An issue stopping the growth of the Mexican market is the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) downgrade of Mexican airspace from Category 1 to Category 2, said Ackerman. The FAA’s regulations do not allow Mexican airlines to open new routes into the US, making the recovery of the Mexican aviation industry much more complex. However, the category downgrade still allows Mexico to continue its previous scheduled flights to the US, as reported by MBN.

“We have had meetings with our airlines, both cargo and passenger, and they have all indicated that they would like to do more flights but that Category 2 has them tied up. We have heard that status can be restored by 2Q2022. If this happens, we expect Mexican airlines to respond by adding new services to DFW,” said Ackerman.