Is The Tulum Airport A Flop Or A Slow Burn? Airlines Adjust As Demand Lags.

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• Tulum International Airport, opened in late 2022, has not met initial airline expectations for passenger volume.
• Airlines, including Spirit, United, American, and Delta, have reduced the number of flights and passenger capacity to Tulum.
• Airlines are using data to adjust flight schedules and determine the right level of service for the new airport.

When the new airport in Tulum opened last year, it promised visitors to Mexico's Mayan Riviera a more streamlined travel experience to resorts beyond Cancún. Airlines were initially bullish on a new way to get their passengers to a popular tourist destination, but about a year and a half after opening, Felipe Carrillo Puerto International Airport in Tulum hasn't yet fully caught on.

"Launching a new airport is a huge endeavor – especially so for those that are entirely tourism dependent. In the case of the Yucatan, Cancún has huge brand awareness in the U.S. and Canada amongst sun worshippers and has for decades, with Cozumel second in brand footprint and air traffic," Mike Arnot, a spokesperson for aviation data analytics company Cirium, told USA TODAY in an email. "For Tulum Airport, the build will be a marathon, not a sprint."

A closer look at the data from Cirium shows that airlines have progressively scaled back their service to Tulum, and some carriers have abandoned the airport altogether.

In December 2023, Spirit Airlines had planned 60 flights to Tulum for April 2024, representing a capacity for more than 10,000 passengers that month. By February 2024, the airline had axed its entire schedule to Tulum. For context: Spirit is struggling with capacity across its network as engine issues keep some of its planes grounded and financial shortfalls have led it to lay off some of its staff. Nevertheless, it's not a great sign for a leisure-focused airline to completely pull out of a leisure market ahead of spring break.

The airport was still ramping up service in March 2024, so it's hard to compare flights in the early part of spring break between last year and this year.

"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," Arnot said. "Many low-cost airlines are quick to test and reduce flying from a market or exit altogether. Larger carriers will be more conservative."

It's not unusual for new airports to have growing pains as travelers adapt to new route options. Airlines often flood the zone with flights on new routes to see what sticks and then pare things back, but heading into Tulum's second spring break – a time when the airport should be operating with high demand – the numbers suggest it's not as popular with passengers as airlines may initially have hoped.

Take United Airlines' schedule as an example:

When United planned its Spring 2024 flights, it initially intended to fly 94 departures from the U.S. to Tulum in April 2024, with a total passenger capacity of 16,826. But this year, the airline scaled back.

In April 2025, United will only have 60 flights to Tulum from the U.S., and it continues to trim the total capacity it plans on that route, according to Cirium data. In December 2024, those flights were set to carry 10,740 passengers, but by February, United had cut a few hundred seats from the route for April.

The most recent Cirium data shows United only plans to fly 10,402 seats to Tulum from the U.S. next month.

American Airlines saw a similar contraction.

In December 2023, American planned 120 flights to Tulum for April 2024. By April 2025, the airline had halved its schedule to just 60 flights and was downgrading the passenger capacity on those as well.

Delta Air Lines had a more conservative start to its services at Tulum, planning just 30 flights to the airport for April 2024, and actually had moderate growth for April 2025, up to 36 flights. Still, from December 2024 to February 2025, Delta cut about 100 seats from flights to Tulum across its April schedule.

"For Tulum in the airlines' eyes, it's not such much a case of failure or success – thumbs up or down – but instead using data to determine the right supply of seats from the right destinations, for the right time periods," Arnot said.

For now, the airport remains in the trial phase as airlines tweak their schedules to find what works best for the new airport.

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.