United Airlines to End Tulum Flights From Houston and Newark in January

Tulum, Quintana Roo — United Airlines will end its flights to Tulum in January, dropping the last two US routes into the airport less than a month after the terminal’s operator counted the carrier among the airlines expected to nearly double international service this winter.

The airline’s year-round Houston service ends Jan. 2, 2027, and its seasonal Newark flights end after Jan. 24, according to schedule changes first reported by the aviation account Ishrion Aviation and published Oct. 30 by Simple Flying. Newark had been expected not to return next season. Houston had not.

Those two routes are all United still flies to Felipe Carrillo Puerto International Airport, and Houston survived every previous round of cuts. Once both are gone, the January bookings that hotels, tour operators and travel agencies in Tulum are filling now will rest on fewer direct connections from the United States, in the stretch of the calendar the town’s high season depends on.

What to Know

• United Airlines ends its Houston service on Jan. 2, 2027, and its Newark service on Jan. 24.
• Four airlines have announced Tulum route cuts in a 33-day span starting Sept. 27.
• Monthly passengers at the Tulum airport fell from 107,751 in January 2026 to 47,353 in June.
• US carriers are cutting capacity to Tulum by 72 percent for the quarter.
• Airlines attribute the pullback to fuel prices, navigation fees and rising airport charges.

Houston Was the Route That Survived

United arrived in Tulum in spring 2024 with one of the largest launch networks at the new terminal, announcing service from Houston, Chicago O’Hare, Newark, Los Angeles and Denver. Denver, planned for December 2024, never began. Los Angeles was dropped for good in a schedule review reported that same December, and Chicago was removed later, according to Cirium data cited by AirlineGeeks in May 2025.

Houston went the other way. United doubled it to two daily flights in summer 2025, and at 831 miles it is the shortest route between Tulum and any US airport, according to Simple Flying.

When the airline first trimmed its Tulum network, a United spokesperson said the company regularly adjusts its schedule for a range of reasons. Simple Flying’s reading of the latest decision is more direct: airlines overestimated how many travelers would give up Cancún for Tulum.

Four Airlines Announced Cuts in 33 Days

The United decision closes a run that began Sept. 27, when Aeroméxico confirmed it would leave the airport.

Aeroméxico Gone Since Sept. 30

Mexico’s flagship carrier flew its last flight to Tulum on Sept. 30. It had served the terminal since it opened in December 2023, starting with two daily flights from Mexico City International, later moving the operation to Felipe Ángeles International and cutting service to four weekly flights by May 2026. The airline called the suspension temporary, attributing it to market conditions and route-network optimization. Grupo Animal, citing the airline’s published schedule, reports that no Aeroméxico flight to Tulum is scheduled before August 2027.

Volaris on Jan. 7, With Two Versions of What That Means

Volaris confirmed to El Financiero that it will suspend operations to and from Tulum starting Jan. 7, 2027. The low-cost carrier said it had reviewed route profitability and would temporarily suspend flights with lower load factors, citing higher jet fuel prices and increased air navigation service charges from SENEAM, the federal air navigation service. Passengers booked after that date are being offered rebooking, electronic vouchers or a full refund.

The federal government has described the same decision differently. At President Claudia Sheinbaum’s Oct. 8 morning news conference, the head of Grupo Mundo Maya, the army-run company that operates the airport, said Volaris had restricted only its Guadalajara route and would continue flying between Tulum and Felipe Ángeles. The airline’s statement covers its entire Tulum operation. Neither side has publicly reconciled the two accounts.

American Keeps Dallas, Delta Keeps Atlanta

American Airlines drops Miami on Jan. 5, 2027, and will continue its Dallas-Fort Worth route. Delta Air Lines has canceled its Tulum flights from Detroit and Minneapolis and kept Atlanta, according to a tally of route changes published by Grupo Animal.

Bloomberg Intelligence analyst François Duflot estimates that US carriers are cutting capacity to Tulum by 72 percent for the quarter, Bloomberg reported.

Avianca, Copa, JetBlue and Discover Were Already Gone

The fall announcements follow an earlier wave. Avianca from Bogotá, Copa Airlines from Panama City, JetBlue from New York’s JFK and the German leisure carrier Discover Airlines all ended service after opening Tulum routes, according to a Cirium analysis cited by Riviera Maya News. Volaris had already canceled its international flight from San José, Costa Rica.

Monthly Passengers Fell From 107,751 to 47,353

The terminal was losing traffic well before the latest cuts. Monthly passenger movement fell from 107,751 in January 2026 to 47,353 in June, according to figures cited by Grupo Animal, and data from the Federal Civil Aviation Agency put the first-half decline at 33.2 percent.

International operations in August totaled 109, down from 301 in the same month of 2025, a 63.8 percent contraction, according to the French aviation publication Infos Tourisme.

Business groups estimate the destination will lose more than 120,000 airline seats this season, and downtown hotel occupancy fell as low as 25.3 percent in the weakest months, according to the same Grupo Animal report.

Part of the explanation sits inside the terminal. Riviera Maya News reports that the airport passed one million passengers early in its life and that the withdrawal of the incentives new airports typically grant airlines was followed by route cancellations over the past year.

Fuel, Airport Fees and a Higher Visitor Fee in 2027

The reasons airlines give are mostly about cost. Volaris and Aeroméxico have pointed to jet fuel prices, navigation charges and increases in the TUA, the per-passenger airport use fee. Carriers have also weighed the planned 35 percent increase in the Derecho de No Residente, the fee foreign visitors pay, scheduled for 2027, according to Grupo Animal. Local hoteliers have asked the airport to lower its charges, The Cancun Sun reported.

Sheinbaum has tied the fuel spike to the war in Iran and said subsidizing jet fuel would be complicated. On Oct. 8 she called false the claims that Aeroméxico left over security concerns, attributing the decision to fuel costs and the airline’s business strategy. She has also said her government will review the specific conditions at the Tulum terminal, and has pointed to the return of seasonal flights from Canada and the United States, more service from the state airline and efforts to ease access to the archaeological zone.

Canadian Carriers and Mexicana Carry the Winter Schedule

Part of the winter schedule is growing.

Air Canada, WestJet and Air Transat resumed service to Tulum on Oct. 24 and 25, and Grupo Mundo Maya expects the three Canadian carriers to operate more than 710 international flights between October and March. The Canadian market produced 101,959 passengers at the airport between January and April 2026, with traffic from Calgary up 103.2 percent, according to figures the operator presented.

Mexicana de Aviación, the state airline run by the armed forces, says it will add 24 flights between December and part of January, and Viva Aerobus continues to fly to Tulum. Airport management said in early October that the terminal is operating normally.

One figure remains unresolved. The operator’s forecast of international operations rising from 552 to 1,064 between November and March listed United among the airlines expected to grow. United’s own schedule now stops in the fourth week of January.

The next public test comes Sunday, when the Latin American and Caribbean Air Transport Association opens its aviation summit in Mexico City, where Bloomberg expects the reduced flying to draw focus. After that, the dates belong to the airlines. Houston leaves Jan. 2, Miami Jan. 5, Volaris Jan. 7 and Newark Jan. 24.