Puerto Vallarta International Airport handled 440,200 terminal passengers in May 2026, down 14.4 percent from May 2025, with the decline concentrated in international flights, according to GAP’s preliminary May traffic report.
The airport ended the first five months of 2026 with 2.9065 million passengers, below the 3.2945 million recorded in the same period last year. That leaves Puerto Vallarta 388,000 passengers behind last year’s pace through May.
The international market accounted for most of the drop. Puerto Vallarta reported 173,500 international passengers in May, down 26.5 percent from 236,100 a year earlier. Domestic traffic fell 4.1 percent, from 278,200 to 266,700.
GAP’s figures measure the number of terminal passengers on domestic and international flights. They do not measure hotel occupancy, tourist spending, or the number of individual visitors staying in Puerto Vallarta and Bahía de Banderas.
Our review of the traffic tables shows the five-month loss is being driven far more by international routes than by domestic travel. From January through May, international passengers at Puerto Vallarta fell to 1.74 million, down 344,300 from the same period of 2025. Domestic passengers totaled 1.1665 million, down 43,700.
The destination’s summer recovery efforts are leaning heavily on connectivity in Mexico. Volaris is now selling flights to Puerto Vallarta from Aguascalientes, Puebla, and San Luis Potosí, and PVDN reported this week that those routes began in June. The new domestic service can help fill seats, but it does not directly replace the lost international volume shown in May’s data.
Puerto Vallarta’s May result was weaker than GAP’s 12-airport Mexican network, which fell 2.8 percent. Guadalajara rose 7.1 percent, while Tijuana fell 9.8 percent and Los Cabos fell 6.0 percent. Including GAP’s Jamaica airports, the group’s total traffic was down 4.1 percent.
The weakness is not isolated to Vallarta. ASUR’s Mexican airports reported a 10.0 percent decline in international traffic in May, including an 11.1 percent drop at Cancún. PVDN also reported this week that Cancún’s international traffic fell in May, adding to signs of softer foreign air demand at several beach destinations.
GAP also reported a 7.5 percent reduction in available seats across its airports in May, while its load factor rose from 81.1 percent to 84.1 percent. A higher load factor means airlines filled a larger share of the seats they offered, but the smaller seat base still produced fewer passengers overall.
GAP did not give an airport-specific explanation for Puerto Vallarta’s decline. The report establishes the passenger counts, seat reduction, and load factor. It does not separate the effect of airline schedules from traveler demand or route mix.
The May data follow a difficult spring for the airport. Puerto Vallarta traffic fell 24.4 percent in March and 17.0 percent in April. May’s decline was less severe than March’s, but it kept the airport below last year’s pace as the high international winter-spring season gave way to summer.
The immediate pressure is on businesses tied to air travelers, especially hotels, airport transportation, tours, and restaurants that depend on international visitors. For residents, part-time residents, and frequent visitors, the issue is route availability and fares if airlines keep capacity tighter into summer.
The next tests are in June and July, when new domestic routes, summer travel, and any World Cup spillover should begin to appear in the data. PVDN has reported that tourism leaders say summer confidence has improved, while hotel demand tied directly to the World Cup has remained uneven. The airport number to watch is not only total traffic, but whether international passengers stop falling at a double-digit pace.
