Flights between Mexico and Canada are reactivated

The progress in the vaccination process in Canada and Mexico, the increase in passenger demand and the changes in the measures imposed by the Canadian government on April 30 to prevent the spread of COVID-19, allowed the reopening of flights between Canada and Mexico.

Among the destinations that Canadian travelers will be able to visit again this year are: Puerto Vallarta, Cancun, Mazatlán, Riviera Nayarit and Los Cabos.

On June 5, the Westjet airline reopened the Saturday connection between Calgary and Puerto Vallarta, while Air Canada confirmed the reopening of the route from Vancouver to the same sun and beach destination, as of August 1.

For its part, Air Transat plans to resume flights to Puerto Vallarta from Toronto and Montreal, starting in November.

Once six months have elapsed since the closure of flights to and from Mexico unilaterally decreed by the Canadian government as a health measure to prevent the worsening of the pandemic, Canadian airlines Swoop and  Sunwing will also

reactivate flights in October and November. next, respectively.

In fact, the first airline, considered in the low-cost segment, already has eleven frequencies scheduled to Puerto Vallarta from five cities: Edmonton, three times a week starting October 5; Hamilton, twice a week on the same date; Toronto, twice a week starting November 3; Abbotsford, twice a week starting on the same date and Winnipeg, twice a week, starting November 4.

With this announcement of Swoop’s reinstatement of operations for the fall-winter season, with just over 2,000 seats per week and around 8,300 per month, they now add four of the five airlines that flew to Puerto Vallarta from Canada, prior to the pandemic.

This airline also provides direct flights to Cancun and Mazatlán, as can be seen on its website .

For its part, Sunwing will have two frequencies to Puerto Vallarta starting on December 10 with the cities of Regina and Saskatoon with flights on Fridays and Sundays.

“Our community has been eagerly awaiting the return of sun travel and will be excited to have Sunwing back with seasonal flights to many familiar sun destinations,” explained Stephen Maybury, CEO of Saskatoon International Airport.

Sunwing has also confirmed frequencies to Mazatlán and Riviera Nayarit in November and Los Cabos in December.

It should be remembered that prior to the pandemic, Puerto Vallarta was the first city in Latin America with the largest number of cities (16 in total) that operated direct flights from Canada.

In 2020 alone, a total of two million 98 thousand people traveled between Mexico and Canada, which represented a fall of 56.1% compared to the previous year, according to statistics from the Ministry of Communications and Transportation (SCT).

Thus, of the six airlines that operated between the two countries, WestJet had 38.8% of demand, followed by Aeroméxico with 21.7%, Air Canada with 14.8%, Air Transat with 12.8%, Sunwing with 7.7% and Swoop Airlines with 4.1%.

However, since Interjet’s exit from the market, Aeroméxico remains the only Mexican operator that flies to Canada.

According to the Datatur system of the Ministry of Tourism, Canada is the second country that contributes the most international tourists to Mexico, and in particular to Puerto Vallarta, from cities such as Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal, Toronto and Edmonton.

The share of the Canadian market in the total number of international travelers arriving in Mexico by air fell from 10.8 percent in 2019 to 10.2 percent in 2020, so a significant rebound is expected in the last quarter of 2021.