New Los Cabos Flights To Come After U.S. Authorities Give Mexico Airlines Highest Security Rating

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Last Updated 8 months ago

Travelers to Los Cabos have received the extremely positive news that the U.S. Federal Aviation Authority (FAA), which regulates civil aviation, will categorize Mexico as a Category 1 nation.

This news will have seriously fantastic knock-on effects for travelers and comes at a time when safety and security in Los Cabos go from strength to strength—showing that the destination isn’t resting on its successes.

New Routes, Better Prices

A vacation to Los Cabos has been getting more expensive year-on-year, which has been even less welcome than usual thanks to the Mexican peso being strong against the dollar and inflation putting an equally unwelcome dent in how far a dollar stretches.

One of the biggest hopes with this new classification is the promise of new potential routes, bringing more competition and pricing battles between airlines.

As a category 2 nation, which was put on Mexico in 2021, the country was unable to open new air routes between Los Cabos and U.S. cities.

This has meant travelers have been battling for seats, which was made all the more difficult as demand rose without supply following.

A recipe for travelers not receiving the deals they deserve.

Another hopeful thought coming from both travelers and the tourism industry is the growth of Mexican low-cost airlines.

There are 2 main providers of cheap air travel in Mexico, Viva Aerobus and Volaris. Both have great records and are well-known across Latin America for providing super-competitive airfares to travelers.

On top of this, Mexico has recently announced the return of the airline Mexicana, which is funded and run by the government and promises amazingly low airfares.

Safety Continues To Improve

A huge positive aspect of this recategorization is what it means for passenger safety.

When Mexico was downgraded in 2021 it naturally raised questions from travelers. While air travel continues to improve safety each year, the thought of a whole nation’s air travel safety classification being downgraded was no small issue.

The change from the FAA shocked many, no more so than the airlines that operate to the destination of Los Cabos. As a flight route, Los Cabos has a stellar record for safety and this felt like an unfair punishment to many.

What The Categories Mean

For a nation to be in Category 2 it only needs to fail one of the following:

• Lack of laws or regulations that police air carriers in accordance with international standards.
• Lack of experts/resources to adequately oversee air carriers.
• Lack of qualified technical personnel.
• Not providing good enough guidance for inspectors to oversee air carriers.
• Lacking documentation/records of surveillance of air carriers.

Failing to meet just one of these standards will have a nation downgraded to category 2, which is what happened to Los Cabos and Mexico in 2021.

The reclassification to category 1 now means that each and every one of these standards is met at a minimum.

Respect For U.S. Standards

These classifications are completely overseen and enforced by the FAA. Across the globe, there is no nation with more comprehensive safety and security standards than the U.S.

And while other nations are under no obligation to observe these standards, they play a huge part in the availability of air routes to and from the U.S.

The relationship between the U.S. and Mexico has had its issues, but for the most part, there is mutual respect between officials, and hard work has been put in over the past 2 years to reach the extremely high standards of the FAA.

This is a positive reminder that destinations like Los Cabos, and the government of Mexico have huge respect for the standards of America and that the cooperative relationship continues to get stronger, despite what some news cycles may have people believe.