Los Cabos Airport Among The Top 3 Airports In Mexico

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Last Updated 10 months ago

Tourists using the Los Cabos International Airport for a vacation getaway in the first ten months of the year have visited the third busiest airport in Mexico with more than six million of their closest friends.

That’s the result of what has been a very busy year so far at the airport, serving one of the top beach resort destinations in the entire country.

The Bronze Medal

If it were a competition, Los Cabos would win the bronze medal in honestly what is quite a tough race. It would be really hard to beat the gold medal airport, Mexico City, with its massive passenger connecting traffic. Topping silver medalist Cancun International Airport could also be a major hurdle.

So far this year, through October, Los Cabos has hosted 6.4 million passengers at the international airport. Of those, more than 3.9 million were international visitors and nearly 2.5 million with domestic travelers. During the same time period, more than 27 million passengers used Cancun International Airport.

Los Cabos, however, beat both airports when it came to the year-over-year percentage increase. Los Cabos has seen a seven percent increase in passengers compared with 2022. That’s better than the five percent at Mexico City and meager less than two percent at Cancun.

However, it’s important to remember that the Mexico City airport is a major connecting hub for flights all over North and South America. That’s a lot different in scope than both Cancun and Los Cabos, which have destination traffic and do not really host connecting flights.

In fact, many of the people connecting in Mexico City may have arrived in Cancun or Los Cabos as well.

Refocus on Luxury Travel

Early in the year, the Los Cabos Tourism Trust identified three luxury travel segments that were set to dominate travel in 2023 – wellness, nature, and sustainability. The tourism agency focused on those three pillars to increase the number of travelers to Los Cabos, and it worked.

The same three segments are expected to remain important for travelers in post-pandemic travel. That should serve Los Cabos well to remain in the number three busiest airport slot in front of Puerto Vallarta, which competes with Los Cabos for that position.

The wild card for next year could very well be the economic conditions in the United States and the slowdown that is now underway. How it affects consumer spending and the comfort level of travelers for international travel could affect the traveler count in Los Cabos next year.

Especially when it comes to budget-oriented travelers and the high cost of hotel rooms and other amenities in Los Cabos.

What it Means for Visitors

The good news is Los Cabos is a recognized travel hotspot in Mexico, and demand for flights and hotel rooms in the beach resort destination remains high. That ensures there should be plenty of flights and rooms available for visitors. Although, they will not necessarily come cheap.

The recently announced potential flight lingering in the future to La Paz could provide some competition for Los Cabos. However, most travelers flying to La Paz will surely want to spend at least a day trip in Los Cabos, exactly the reverse that travelers select today.

The biggest competition for Los Cabos will not only be the emerging Puerto Peñasco but will also come from the tourism hotspot to the east, Cancun and the Mexican Caribbean. That area is getting a lot of upgrades that Los Cabos is not, such as the Maya Train.

It may take the Mexican government providing some upgrades to the Los Cabos experience to help bring tourism in the beach resort destination to its next level of traveler excitement.