After a number of delays, flights between Los Cabos and Madrid are set to finally commence as of next Monday July 18th, the Ministry for Tourism has announced.
The flights are part of a strategy by the current state administration to increase air connectivity and diversify where tourists who visit Los Cabos are travelling from. The head of the Ministry of Tourism and Economy, Maribel Collins, announced that the first flight will run from Madrid-San José del Cabo-Madrid on a weekly frequency.
Collins stressed that this flight route will be direct to Madrid and vice versa. The route will utilize a new generation Airbus A350 from Iberojet, which has the capacity to transport up to 432 passengers per flight.
She said, “This flight marks the beginning of further connections between Baja California Sur and the rest of the world. It will boost activity in the destination and attract the emerging European market, which in 2022 has provided us with more than 8,000 additional visitors. These tourists will be able to enjoy the array of attractions in both Los Cabos and Baja California Sur”
She emphasized that they want to attract visitors to all municipalities of the area, as European tourists tend to favour activities outdoors, adventure sports and cultural tourism, so the flights will hopefully have a visible economic benefit for the region’s tourism service providers.
Collins also mentioned that this route will operate ‘code sharing’. This means that it will be possible for other European airports that have a commercial relationship with Ávoris to add connecting flights in Madrid in order to reach Los Cabos.
Passengers on the weekly flights will leave at around 2pm Madrid time, and the flight will be approximately 12h 15mins before arriving at 7pm. Passengers will have access to comfortable seats and amenities, and high-quality on-board Mexican cuisine.
The inauguration of the weekly flights will be accompanied by an intense tourism promotional campaign carried out in conjunction with the Los Cabos Tourism Trust and the Spanish companies El Corte Inglés and Logitravel, who will carry out a similar campaign across Europe.
The new flight route in the latest effort by the state government and private tourism sector to boost tourism and increase connectivity with countries around the world.
The region aims to position itself as one of the world’s most competitive tourism destinations, which has led to improvements and promotion regarding the natural beauty, activities and quality of tourism services available in the area.
It was only last month, on June 2nd that Iberojet first announced that flights between Los Cabos and Madrid had been officially postponed until July, with some flights in September also being postponed.
Much of the disruption was due to outside factors such as rising fuel costs and the war in Ukraine, however the first flights next week are already booked.
The announcement of the route came back in May, the flights for which were booked almost immediately. The flights commencing from July 18th will run every Monday through until at least September 12th, at which point timings and routes may change due to hurricane season.
Not only will the new flights bring in an almost 10,000 additional visitors to Los Cabos each year, but there is also hope that if the route is successful, Iberojet may introduce a second route to Los Cabos from an as-yet undecided European location.
The flights will not be the first direct route to Europe however, with flights between London and Los Cabos having begun back in 2019, however Spain is one of Mexico’s focal points for tourism, providing over 150,000 tourists per year meaning it is a wise decision to target this market for flight routes.