Deep Dive: Inside Viva Aerobus’ Recent Route Expansion Announcement

This week, the Mexican ultra-low-cost carrier Viva Aerobus announced the launch of seven new routes, the restart of three services, and the increase in the number of weekly flights of three additional routes. Among the airline’s new routes, there are two new international services from Cancun and Monterrey to Quito and Bogota.

New Viva Aerobus’ services

During its participation at Mexico’s Tianguis Turístico 2023, Viva Aerobus announced the future launch of seven new routes, including two international services.

These new routes are:

1. Mexico City (Felipe Ángeles International Airport, NLU) – Tijuana (TIJ). The route is now operated all year long starting on March 30 with one daily flight
2. Cancun (CUN) – Quito (UIO). It starts on June 16 with three weekly flights
3. Los Cabos (SJD) – Cancun. Starts on May 18 with one daily flight
4. Los Cabos – Querétaro (QRO). Begins on July 1 with three weekly flights
5. Los Cabos – Toluca (TLC). Starts on May 18 with one daily flight
6. Mazatlán (MZT) – La Paz (LAP). Starts on July 1 with two weekly flights
7. Monterrey (MTY) – Bogota (BOG). It starts on June 8 with two weekly flights.

The new route to Colombia allows Viva Aerobus to keep on serving the growing demand between Mexico and the South American country, particularly after the exit of one player from the market after the cease of operations of Viva Air. In 2022, over 858,000 passengers flew from Colombia to Mexico, representing 4.2% of all the international travelers in the country. The route between Cancun and Quito will be completely uncontested. This is a map of Viva Aerobus’ new, resumed and increased routes:

Viva Aerobus will restart three routes

The Mexican ultra-low-cost carrier also announced the restart of three routes, all departing from its hub at Monterrey International Airport. Viva Aerobus will resume the seasonal route between Monterrey and Cozumel (CZM, a small Caribbean destination in front of Cancun; highly recommended) between June and August with two weekly frequencies. Also, between these months, Viva Aerobus is restarting the route to Ixtapa Zihuatanejo (ZIH) with two weekly frequencies.

Finally, Viva Aerobus will resume flying to Mexicali (MXL) from Monterrey with six weekly flights on June 1.

Increasing capacity

Viva Aerobus also announced the increase of its weekly capacity on three routes departing from Toluca International Airport. This airport serves Mexico City and is the smallest compared to Mexico City International (MEX) and Felipe Ángeles.

Viva Aerobus will increase its flights to Cancun from two to three daily services; the airline will also increase from three to four daily services on its route to Monterrey and from one to two daily flights to Mérida. All these routes will receive the increased capacity starting on May 18.

The Mexican carrier has a fleet composed of 70 aircraft. It offers, on average, 205.5 seats per departure. According to Cirium, the airline operates 2,463 weekly flights, with the most important routes being Mexico City-Cancun (80 weekly flights) and Mexico City-Monterrey (77 weekly flights). The company’s most important international routes are Monterrey-Houston (13 weekly flights) and Guadalajara-Los Angeles (12 weekly flights).

What do you think about these new routes announced by Viva Aerobus? Would you be interested in flying in any of these services? Let us know in the comments below.