Tulum Airport Gets Three More Years of Full Airline Incentives

Cancún, Quintana Roo — Tulum International Airport will once again be designated a priority airport and will offer airlines 100% incentives for three more years, an attempt to stop the steady loss of routes it has suffered in 2026.

Federal Tourism Secretary Josefina Rodríguez Zamora announced the move, saying Grupo Mundo Maya, the company that operates the terminal, will formally present the new incentive package.

“The incentives exist, they are set for three years, and we secured more for Tulum as a priority airport. There will be 100% incentives precisely for the reactivation, because Tulum is a different kind of airport,” Rodríguez said. “It is for three more years and Grupo Mundo Maya will announce it, but that will let us recover routes, and not only seasonal ones, but permanent ones.”

How the incentives worked — and expired

When the airport opened in December 2023, Grupo Mundo Maya applied the start-up package used at every new terminal: a graduated discount on the airport use fee (TUA) of 40% in the first year, 20% in the second and 10% in the third, along with reduced landing and apron charges and preferential rents for commercial tenants.

The strategy worked. In less than a year, Tulum attracted flights from the United States, Canada, Colombia, Panama and Germany and welcomed its first million passengers.

The brake came when the support began to expire. As the discounts wound down, airlines started pulling flights: Avianca, Copa, JetBlue, Discover and Volaris Costa Rica were the first to leave.

Adjustments among Mexican carriers followed. Aeroméxico suspended operations on September 30, and Volaris announced a definitive exit for January 7. The most recent is American Airlines — the first international carrier to fly to Tulum — which will keep only its Dallas route and cancel service to Miami and Los Angeles.

The Riviera Maya hotel sector, led by Toni Chaves, has called for the original incentives to be restored, arguing that without them Tulum loses competitiveness against Cancún and Cozumel, which maintain co-investment schemes.

Tourism secretary points to global aircraft shortage

Rodríguez said the problem is not purely local but part of a global crisis driven by a shortage of aircraft, and that a recovery will not be immediate.

“They are not going to recover right now. It will be in the first quarter of 2027 when airlines begin to find their equilibrium point, and the recovery in frequencies will come in the second half of 2027; they will all come back,” she said.

According to the Tourism Ministry, Mexico is the least affected country, with a 3% drop in frequencies, compared with declines of at least 4% in the United States and Turkey. In 2026, 140 new routes have opened to priority markets such as Canada and Europe to offset the cuts.