News

Flights to Mexico Are About to Get Cheaper

December 19, 2023

4 min read

Travel has been weird for the past few years, but one already-popular destination has been even hotter: Mexico. The number of people flying between the US and Mexico last month was 33% higher than pre-pandemic. (Compare that to domestic travel, which is up just 2%.)

That surge in popularity has made finding cheap flights to Mexico tougher, at least on some routes and dates. But there’s good news: We may be awash in cheap Mexico flights soon.

New flight routes to Mexico after 2+ year hiatus

The US Federal Aviation Administration downgraded Mexico’s aviation safety rating to Category 2 in May 2021. But last month, the FAA returned Mexico to Category 1 status, a move that allows Mexican airlines to resume adding new routes to the US.

Major uptick in new flights to Mexico

With Category 1 restored, airlines are opening the floodgates. Aeromexico this month announced 17 new US-Mexico routes, including departures from NYC, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and elsewhere. Budget carrier Viva Aerobus announced five new US destinations, including Austin, Denver, Miami, Oakland, and Orlando. And Delta just announced a new route from Atlanta to Tulum starting in March 2024. In total, the number of US-Mexico flights over the next 6 months is over 10%+ higher than the same period a year ago, according to Cirium.

New airline and new airports in Mexico

Historic airline Mexicana, which ceased operations in 2010, is relaunching later this year with an initial focus on domestic Mexico flights. A second major airport in Mexico City (NLU) is allowing airlines to add capacity. And the popular tourist destination Tulum is scheduled to open its new airport (TQO) in December 2023.

Why is this all great news for travelers? Because the single most important driver of cheap fares is how much competition there is between airlines. More flights = cheaper flights.

Mexico has always been a popular destination for American travelers, but for the past few years, there’s been an artificially low amount of competition. That’s about to change.

Join Going to get cheap flights to Mexico and around the world.

Scott Keyes

Founder & Chief Flight Expert

Scott Keyes is the Founder and Chief Flight Expert of Going (formerly Scott’s Cheap Flights), an app for flight deal alerts. He launched the service after spotting a $130 roundtrip fare from New York to Milan in 2013 and turned that discovery into a hobby of alerting friends to exceptional flight deals. Within two years, he formalized the email list into a business, culminating in the 2015 founding of the email service that has grown to serve more than 2 million members, sending them flight alerts for cheap flight tickets and mistake fares to destinations worldwide.

With a background in journalism and an education from Stanford University, Keyes spent years investigating airfare pricing, airline yield management, and consumer booking behavior. He worked with the Going team to build a mobile app, launched in 2024, that scans thousands of routes and publishes curated low‑fare alerts. The community has saved members over $1 billion in airfare in ten years, according to Mercury. His insights and story have been featured in The Washington Post, CNBC, Yahoo, Fortune, and more, where he has shared data-driven strategies on airline pricing patterns and booking optimization.

Alongside his role at Going, Keyes authored the book Take More Vacations: How to Search Better, Book Cheaper, and Travel the World (Harper Wave, 2021), which presents his methodology and encourages travelers to prioritize price‑first trips rather than destination‑first. Through speaking engagements and media commentary, he is widely cited as an authority on how to secure mistake fares, fare drops, and unadvertised deals.

Keyes is based in Portland, Oregon. His work bridges data‑driven airfare analytics with travel psychology, and he is committed to making global travel more affordable and accessible.

Last updated December 19, 2023