Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, June 24, 2026 – Mexico is adding flights. Puerto Vallarta’s airport is still losing passengers.
Mexico’s Tourism Ministry reported 48 new air routes in June, including 29 domestic and 19 international. The expansion shows airlines still see growth in Mexico. But in Vallarta, the airport numbers tell a colder story.
Puerto Vallarta handled 440,200 passengers in May, down 14.4 percent from a year earlier. International traffic took the hardest hit, falling 26.5 percent.
Mexico’s route map is expanding
The new June routes connected several major tourism and business markets. They included AIFA flights to Cartagena and Medellín; Monterrey to Madrid; Cancún to Brasília; Guadalajara to Detroit; Los Cabos to Las Vegas; Monterrey to New York; and Puebla to Los Angeles.
Tourism Minister Josefina Rodríguez Zamora framed the openings as a sign of airline confidence in Mexico’s tourism economy. Nationally, that argument has support. From January through April, Mexico recorded 16.5 million international tourists, up 5.5 percent from 2025, according to federal tourism data from DataTur.
PVR is falling faster than the group
The May numbers from Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico clearly show the gap.
GAP’s 12 Mexican airports saw total passenger traffic fall 2.8 percent in May. Puerto Vallarta fell 14.4 percent.
The international side hurt most. PVR handled 173,500 international passengers in May 2026, down from 236,100 a year earlier. Domestic traffic slipped 4.1 percent, from 278,200 passengers to 266,700.
From January through May, Puerto Vallarta traffic was down 11.8 percent overall. International traffic was down 16.5 percent.
That follows a weak March, when Puerto Vallarta foreign air arrivals fell 31.2 percent from a year earlier.
New flights don’t always mean more passengers
Puerto Vallarta hasn’t been left out of the route conversation. A new direct Volaris flight between Puerto Vallarta and Aguascalientes began on June 2.
That makes the local picture more complicated. Vallarta is adding some service, but it’s still losing traffic.
Across GAP’s network, airlines offered 7.5 percent fewer seats in May than a year earlier. Planes flew fuller, with load factors rising from 81.1 percent to 84.1 percent.
The local issue is international demand
Mexico’s route expansion shows airlines still want to grow in the country. It does not show that Puerto Vallarta has turned the corner.
For PVR, the clearest signal will come from international traffic. The airport needs the U.S. and Canada markets to stabilize before the local slowdown appears to be a short-term dip.
The next monthly airport report will show whether Vallarta is narrowing the gap or falling further behind, while Mexico’s broader route map continues to grow.
