International arrivals at Puerto Vallarta Airport fell amid new U.S. policy, despite a 15% domestic surge driving total passengers to 2.7 million in the beginning of 2025.
Puerto Vallarta International Airport handled 2.7 million passengers between January and April 2025, marking a 2 percent increase in overall traffic despite a slight decline in international arrivals. According to Cryshtian Amador Lizardi, director of the airport, domestic travel climbed 15 percent over the same period, offsetting reductions on foreign routes.
Speaking at the Puerto Vallarta Meetings held at the International Convention Center, Amador Lizardi highlighted progress on the airport’s New Terminal Building (NTB), which is now 45 percent complete. “The expansion is essentially a completely new airport,” he said, noting that critical systems connecting the runway and boarding areas have already been installed.
In an interview published this Sunday in El Economista, Amador Lizardi explained that factors such as recent U.S. government policy changes and economic uncertainty in the United States—the airport’s primary source of international visitors—have contributed to a modest dip in arrivals. The airport currently serves 26 U.S. connections, and any adjustment in that market has an outsized impact on monthly figures.
“While we have seen a slight decrease in international traffic, the dynamism of the national market has kept us on an upward trajectory,” he added. The NTB project, backed by a 6 billion peso investment for 2020–2024 and an additional 3.6 billion pesos for the current five-year period, is designed to boost capacity by 130 percent once complete.
Once operational, the expanded terminal is expected to streamline passenger flows and reduce transit times between check-in, security, and boarding gates. The architectural firm LBR&A has incorporated cutting-edge technology to ensure the facility can accommodate projected growth over the next two decades.
With domestic demand driving early-year gains and construction advancing on schedule, airport officials remain optimistic that international figures will rebound as economic and political headwinds ease.
