TUI’s direct flights from England to Puerto Vallarta are not coming back in the short term. That message was reinforced around World Travel Market (WTM) London, where Jalisco’s tourism team worked the floor but didn’t walk away with a restart date. The state says 13,496 European visitors came to Jalisco in 2024, and nearly a quarter were from the UK, yet the long-haul link to the Pacific coast remains paused. The reality: airlines are prioritizing shorter, higher-yield routes while they ride out a global aircraft crunch.
At WTM London, the Mexican delegation networked with big-name sellers and tour operators across three days of meetings. The show itself underlines the scale: thousands of exhibitors from more than 180 countries, a hub where routes are pitched, packages are priced, and demand signals are swapped. That’s where Jalisco again made its case to the British market, while the fair posted more than 4,000 exhibitors and 180+ countries represented this year. For now, the case wasn’t enough to put Puerto Vallarta back on a UK departure board.
TUI’s UK-to-Vallarta story stretches back to the Thomson Airways era, when the Boeing 787 opened nonstops from London and Manchester in 2014. The flights returned after the pandemic hiatus in late 2021, then saw cuts in early 2023 and cancellations for summer 2024 as the operator pruned long-haul where the math didn’t work. Those decisions tracked a wider rethink: push capacity to mid-haul sunshine that sells at volume and price. Trade outlets also reported TUI axing the UK’s only direct link to Cuba in 2024 while rationalizing other long-hauls. That pattern helps explain why Puerto Vallarta isn’t back yet.
England to Puerto Vallarta
Inside TUI’s own updates, the momentum is clear. The company talks up short and medium-haul winners—Spain, Greece, Turkey—while nudging prices higher and adding capacity where demand is strongest. In winter, the Canary Islands and Egypt carry heavy traffic; in summer, the Med dominates. When you have limited aircraft, you send them where they can fly more sectors per day and turn cash faster. That’s the strategic headwind facing a long, once-weekly Mexico Pacific run from the UK.
Jalisco’s line at WTM was measured: they hope the market shifts in the next couple of years so a UK flight can return, pointing to 2027 as a realistic horizon. That isn’t just about consumer demand. It’s also about airplanes. Around the industry, late deliveries and engine shop backlogs have grounded narrow-bodies and slowed wide-body growth, forcing tour carriers to wet-lease jets and trim schedules. TUI’s airline chief recently acknowledged how Boeing delays dragged on 2025 planning, even as the outlook improves. The short version: the supply side is still tight.
So, where does that leave British travelers who want Puerto Vallarta? For now, it’s a connection—usually via Mexico City, Dallas, Houston, or another hub—plus an easy domestic or regional hop to the coast. It’s less convenient than a Saturday Dreamliner, but demand hasn’t evaporated. Jalisco used WTM to pitch Guadalajara’s cultural and city break offerings, leaning into routes and partnerships that can deliver visitors today while the UK nonstop waits its turn. The state’s goal is to deepen relationships with wholesalers such as Voyage Privé, Dnata, Sunwing, eDreams, Original Travel, Journey Latin America, and more—relationships that, if the aircraft supply picture brightens, could convert into a restart window.
What would change the calculus
Two levers matter most. First, aircraft availability needs to ease. Less time in engine shops and steadier Boeing/Airbus deliveries would free planners to take more long-hauls without robbing core Med capacity. Analysts and airline leaders still see a multi-year slog before supply fully normalizes, which keeps long-thin leisure routes on the bubble.
Second, the UK market has to reward the risk. If British bookings to Mexico’s Pacific spike—and package margins look healthier than a third Antalya rotation—operators will listen. For now, signals lean the other way. TUI has trimmed or ended several transatlantic and Latin America flights over the past two years while boosting Turkey and other short-haul winners. Jalisco’s team is doing the right work in London: keep the brand warm, feed city-break demand to Guadalajara, and be ready with hotel inventory and ground product if a viable aircraft window opens.
Until then, Puerto Vallarta remains a two-flight journey from the UK. The story is less about demand than about logistics and strategy in a constrained fleet world. If the aircraft tide turns and margins line up, 2027 is the first realistic year to watch.
