• ROUTES: The two most important airline routes originating in Mexico bound to the US (Mexico City/Los Angeles and Mexico City/Houston) experienced a downturn in passenger traffic in 2019, according to preliminary government data.
• FALL: For the first months of the 2019, passenger traffic in the Mexico City-Los Angeles route fell by 16.9% (1.15 million in 2018 to 957,000 in 2019) while the Mexico City-Houston route also dropped by 20.5% (955,000 passengers in 2018 to 759,000 in 2019), per Mexican Government.
• RECESSION: “When you enter economic recessions, you lose purchasing power and people begin to discard certain expenses. The first thing they cut is travel, especially by plane. That is why the airline industry suffers directly”, says Rogelio Rodríguez, an aviation expert.
• CONTRAST: Meanwhile, passenger traffic in 4 of 5 of the busiest airline routes originating in the US bound to Mexico saw an increase showing a clear contrast to the numbers in the flights bound to Mexico. Final GDP growth for Mexico in 2019 is expected to hover around 0%.
