China Southern Is Adding Flights Between Vancouver And Mexico City (Sort Of)

The lack of Canada-Mexico traffic rights shouldn't last long. The real limit here is landing slots at MEX. The airport is old and small for a city of 22 million, expansion is impossible because it's so hemmed in by growth, approaches through the mountains are narrow, city populations don't like noise, and mountain weather is not especially predictable.

Mexico is building a new airport on stilts, hanging in the air above lake Texcoco—yes, including runways—because that's the only place there is space to grow.

So once China Southern has obtained its landing slot, the rest of the permissions should come quickly.

While it would be nice to fly this route on an Int'l 787 the timing is terrible with that redeye on a sub 5 hour flight.

Ben, a small typo which however changes the sentence's meaning in a funny way - after all, YVR does have lighting: "lights" should be "rights"

Owen, the new Mexico City is being built on a lakebed and not a lake. In fact much of the city lies on a former lakebed. Not great in earthquakes.

@ Jeffrey -- Fixed, thank you!

Doubt the YVR-MEX portion will see many passengers due to Canada's visa policy, which requires most passengers to have an eTA or a Canadian visa for layover (even when YVR already has a sterile international transit area in addition to its post-preclearance zone), and the process of securing a visa can take a good two to three weeks. CA's YUL-HAV has been reduced to 1x weekly because of this reason despite having fifth freedom on that route.

@TC

But for Mexicans in Vancouver, or Mexicans wanting to go to Vancouver it is another option. Especially, since Mexicans are not required to have visas for stays up to six months, i believe.

@Martin "the new Mexico City is being built on a lakebed and not a lake."

Lake Texcoco fills in wet years. Even in relatively dry years, a runway would collapse on the wet mud in the August monsoon. The airport is to be set on caissons sunk deep, deep into the lakebed to rest on bedrock. Then the caissons will have steel towers set into them and the airport will hang above the lake level, suspended by trusses and cables. When the lake fills, the water will be under the airport.

And Mexico actually does pretty well in earthquakes for a city built on mud facing 7-8 point temblors. I've been knocked out of my chair occasionally, but ultimately there's only one in a century that did a lot of damage. (the Big One in 1985)

@M Read Lucky's post. CZ does NOT have fifth freedom rights like CA does, so they cannot solely carry passengers from YVR to MEX.

A sidenote: Mexico is a potential market for Chinese travelers given that over three million Chinese already hold valid U.S. visas which can also be used to enter Mexico, so the incentive to get a separate Canadian visa just for passing through the airport is pretty low. Plus, that's TON of paperwork involved.

You could fly this route YVR to MEX, with a layover in CAN, and a second one in YVR...

Hello... I am looking to fly on ChinaSouthern from JFK to BKK (Thailand) in business class. Can someone give me a review of the airline please? Thank you so much!

I am wondering whether Canada Visa is needed when taking CZ378 from Mexico City to Guangzhou, no message from internet.

I am Peruvian, do I need Canada visa for an stopover in Canada for 1h 50 min even tough we are not going to exit the plane ? Please answer me ASAP