Mexico’s full 2021 traffic results |

It took a little longer than expected, but finally, we have Mexico’s full 2021 traffic results. The country closed the year with over 80 million passengers, both domestically and internationally. Mexico had, arguably, the best traffic recovery in 2021, almost bouncing back to pre-COVID levels by December. Mexico’s traffic results Last year, Mexico recovered 78.8% of its 2019 traffic levels by having over 80 million passengers (versus 101 million two years before - the current record in the country). The country started the year slowly, decreasing in January and February, compared to the traffic numbers posted in December 2020. Traditionally, the first two months of the year are Mexico’s lowest season, so we should also expect a decrease in 2022. Mexico's stats are available here. Nonetheless, Mexican carriers picked up by March, despite the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) downgrading the country to Category 2. This issue still remains as Mexico has been unable to recover Category 1 status and will impact the domestic airlines sooner than later. Domestically, Mexico had 44.3 million travelers in 2021, led by ultra-low-cost carrier Volaris, which carried 18.3 million passengers. Viva Aerobus finished the year in the second spot, carrying 12.5 million domestic passengers, surpassing Aeromexico, which had 12.2 million. These three carriers had 97% of Mexico’s domestic market share. The remaining three percent went to smaller, regional carriers Aeromar, Aéreo Calafia, Magnicharters, and TAR Aerolíneas Regionales. There’s still room to grow in 2022 due to the gap left by Interjet in 2020, although it may slow through the year. It is impossible for airlines such as Volaris and Viva Aerobus to keep growing by double digits for much longer. Mexico’s international traffic results Internationally, Mexico had 35.6 million travelers in 2021. Mexican carriers carried nearly 28% of this total; the remainder was handled by international operators, mainly US-based airlines. Aeromexico remained as Mexico’s top international airline with 4.14 million international travelers, still 45% below its pre-pandemic traffic numbers, due to the impact of travel restrictions worldwide. Volaris had 3.8 million travelers, an 8% increase compared to 2019 levels; Viva Aerobus carried 1.7 million international travelers, growing by 364% compared to its pre-pandemic numbers. It is safe to say Viva Aerobus grew heavily last year. US carriers had 21.0 million travelers flying to Mexico last year. American Airlines carried 5.3 million, followed by United Airlines with 4.6 and Delta Air Lines with 3.3 million. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic and the Category 2 status, the connectivity between Mexico and the US reached record levels, growing slightly over 2019. The market between both countries divides like this: American Airlines 18.9%, United Airlines 15.6%, Volaris 13.0%, Delta Air Lines 10.6%, Aeromexico 8.5% (combined, the two partners are the most prominent players), Alaska Airlines 6.2%, Southwest 6.0%, Viva Aerobus 4.9%, JetBlue 3.6%, Frontier 3.2%, and others the remaining 9.5%. The Mexico-US market was the international highlight. But the other international markets remain relatively depressed for Mexico. Looking at the connectivity numbers by Canadian, South American, European, and Asian carriers, they only recovered 44.3% of their pre-pandemic traffic levels, in line with other recoveries worldwide.

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