Data from the Civil Aviation Agency (DGAC) showed Mexico's commercial aviation industry displaying its weakest growth rate since 2011 for the first half of the calendar year. The decline is being attributed mainly to a 2.5 percent fall in the number of arrivals from foreign airlines. 16.6 million passengers flew into Mexico on foreign airlines between January and June 2019, compared to 17 million during the same period in 2018.
Mexico News Daily stated that there was a 5.1 percent drop in the number of passengers entering Mexico via U.S. airlines during the first six months -more than double the overall reduction in arrivals from foreign carriers.
The United States, which is the leading source of visitors to Mexico, showed an overall reduction of 0.4 percent its citizens flying into the country, which the Gemes consultancy called Mexico's "worst performance" in attracting U.S. tourists since 2012. Reportedly, the number of arrivals coming from Canada, Mexico's second-most important tourism market, is also decreasing.
The dissolution of Mexico's Tourism Council earlier this year and the ensuing lack of tourism marketing and development efforts is being cited as the primary reason for this ebb in international visitor volume.
However, the number of passengers from abroad flying into the country aboard Mexican airlines between January and June 2019 was shown to have increased 10 percent in comparison to the same period last year.
Domestically, airline-passenger figures were also on the rise for the first half of the year, climbing 8.5 percent, although growth was not as strong as in 2018, which saw a 9.2 percent increase over the same months in 2017.
When it came to specific air carriers, Volaris proved to be the domestic market leader, with a 22.6-percent growth in passenger during the first half of 2019, compared to last year. VivaAerobús experienced an 18.6 percent boost in its domestic passenger volume during the first half, while Interjet saw growth of 3.6 percent.
Aeroméxico Connect actually declined 6.1 percent and Aeroméxico felt a 3.3 fall domestically. Still, the flag carrier remains the leading Mexican airline in international flights, although those numbers also fell by 2.8 percent during the first half of 2019.
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