United Airlines has become the latest airline to announce service to Tulum’s new airport, following similar announcements from Delta Air Lines, American Airlines, and Spirit Airlines. United is really making a splash here, as the airline will offer up to five daily flights in the market.
In this post:
United will fly from four cities to Tulum
As of March 31, 2024, United will be launching daily, year-round, nonstop flights from three airports to Tulum (TQO). This will include once daily flights from Chicago (ORD) and Newark (EWR), plus twice daily flights from Houston (IAH). On top of that, as of May 23, 2024, United will add a daily, seasonal service to Tulum from Los Angeles (LAX). In total, United will offer up to five daily flights to Tulum.
These flights are now on sale, meaning that the schedules have also been published, and I wanted to go over all those details.
The once daily Chicago to Tulum flight will operate with the following schedule using a Boeing 737-900 (this is a 1,503-mile flight, and is blocked at roughly four hours in each direction):
UA1950 Chicago to Tulum departing 9:13AM arriving 1:00PM
UA1951 Tulum to Chicago departing 2:10PM arriving 6:05PM
The twice daily Houston to Tulum flight will operate with the following schedule using a Boeing 737-900 (this is an 829-mile flight, and is blocked at roughly 2.5 hours in each direction):
UA365 Houston to Tulum departing 9:35AM arriving 11:55AM
UA366 Tulum to Houston departing 1:05PM arriving 3:31PM
UA1600 Houston to Tulum departing 12:07PM arriving 2:25PM
UA1601 Tulum to Houston departing 3:35PM arriving 6:00PM
The once daily Newark to Tulum flight will operate with the following schedule using a Boeing 737-900 (this is a 1,623-mile flight, and is blocked at roughly four hours in each direction):
UA2031 Newark to Tulum departing 10:07AM arriving 1:15PM
UA1601 Tulum to Newark departing 2:25PM arriving 7:23PM
The once daily Los Angeles to Tulum (seasonal) flight will operate with the following schedule using a Boeing 737-900 (this is a 2,107-mile flight, and is blocked at roughly five hours in each direction):
UA1752 Los Angeles to Tulum departing 10:10AM arriving 4:54PM
UA1753 Tulum to Los Angeles departing 6:00PM arriving 9:05PM
United has committed to offering among the most service to Tulum, as Delta will offer one daily flight from one city, Spirit will offer two daily flights from two cities, American will offer four daily flights from three cities, and United will offer four to five daily flights from three to four cities.
United’s expansion to Tulum complements the carrier’s other Riviera Maya service. This upcoming winter, United plans to offer more than 200 weekly flights to Cancun from eight cities in the United States, including flying Boeing 777s from Chicago, Denver, and Houston. United also plans to operate up to 11 weekly flights to Cozumel.
Details of Tulum’s new international airport
The new Felipe Carrillo Puerto International Airport in Tulum has been a long time coming. Bidding for construction of the airport started well over a decade ago, in 2011. However, nothing happened for many years, and when Andrés Manuel López Obrador became president of Mexico in 2018, the project wasn’t a priority.
However, with Tulum’s increasing popularity (especially since the start of the pandemic) and capacity limitations at Cancun Airport, the project has once again been emphasized. Construction started in 2022, and is expected to be completed in late 2023. That’s a mighty fast airport construction project!
As it currently stands, domestic operations at the airport should start in December 2023, with Aeromexico and Viva Aerobus being the two first airlines to serve the airport. I can’t help but wonder if that timeline might still be a bit optimistic, given the short construction timeline. Regardless, it sounds like things should be up and running by early next year.
Bottom line
Tulum’s Felipe Carrillo Puerto International Airport will soon commence operations. United Airlines has announced plans to launch year-round flights from Chicago, Houston, and Newark, and seasonal flights from Los Angeles.
It’s not surprising to see the amount of interest in Tulum service, though I’m curious to see how this evolves over time, especially in the off season. Are airlines being overly optimistic with their scheduling? One thing is for sure — Tulum is about to get even more mainstream, if that’s possible.
I hope the airport has sufficient immigration officers on hand, or else arrivals here could be a nightmare during peak periods.
What do you make of United’s plans to fly to Tulum?
Why not Denver no -stop service to Talum?
The real question is whether Tulum's recent popularity sticks and, if not, whether the better proximity to the resorts on that end will help support service.
I am sad for Tulum. Unfortunately this will mean continued and accelerated destruction of a truly unique and beautiful place. There is so much corruption there, that the environment is now the least important far below profits.
Any idea when systems will actually recognise the airport/code? Not even expertflyer recognises the airport and nor do partner airlines other than those actually operating flights.
The next to respond will be Southwest, Air Canada and Westjet. It’ll be interesting to observe.
Not flying from their second largest domestic hub Denver is wild.
Well, they do not appear to be flying from SFO or IAD either.
Talum is a spiritual / New Age mecca, and so LA makes sense. Denver has the Boulder crowd, but I'm guessing they feel they can route people over the other hubs, or those in Denver will be fine going through CUN.
It's early days, so we will see how it plays out.
Also keep in mind that they have to figure out...
Well, they do not appear to be flying from SFO or IAD either.
Talum is a spiritual / New Age mecca, and so LA makes sense. Denver has the Boulder crowd, but I'm guessing they feel they can route people over the other hubs, or those in Denver will be fine going through CUN.
It's early days, so we will see how it plays out.
Also keep in mind that they have to figure out the best direct/overlow yields, and also aircraft movements in general across the whole system.
Kirby and his team are not dumb. If there is money to be made, the planes will go there. :-)
Wouldn’t be surprised if Southwest, whose biggest hub is DEN and who is United’s biggest rival at DEN, announces Denver to Tulum, and United quickly follows. They already compete direct to every other major Mexican vacation destination.
Also, Tim Dunn would probably disagree with your assessment of Kirby and team ; )
Not flying from their second largest domestic hub Denver is wild.
Not feeling the love from JFK where B6 and DL both have hubs.
Your numbers are all over the place. You say that United will be offering 22 daily flights and then later in the article you say 3-5 daily flights.
You also have American's numbers backwards as they are offering 4 flights from 3 destinations.
I wonder to what extent this "all-in" across the board represents a disdain for CUN, which I understand to be unpopular with airlines and travelers alike? Taking all US carriers in total, this is an enormous all-at-once jump into a new destination.
Ben, you wrote, "American will offer three daily flights from four cities." I think you have the numbers in reverse. It should be four daily flights from three cities (2x DFW, 1x CLT, 1x MIA).
Where's the love for IAD?
Which is easier -- Metro to IAD or Acela to EWR?
They're both miserable in their own unique ways.
As if everyone in the DMV lives in the District. News flash: they don't, and the VA side is the fastest growing and highest income part of the region.
And yet somehow.. no one is rushing to serve that Dulles demographic
I’m curious if we’ll see delta add to their current Tulum schedule. Their 1x daily flight looks positively puny given the strength of the ATL connecting hub when their rivals see a lot more demand from their hubs.
It is equally as valid to ask if Aeromexico will add Tulum service since AM and DL have a joint venture.
but, yes, DL's schedule doesn't seem like much compared to other carriers.
DL, in generally, doesn't jump into new markets with both feet but if Tulum does prove to turn into an economically successful new airport, DL will need to do more either on its own or with AM.
True but it would be unlike AM to offer nonstops to the US from Tulum. I believe the initial news was that AM was supposed to offer US nonstops from Tulum but I haven’t seen the advertised routes for sale anywhere
I fully expect delta to add frequency but it is strange how different their competitors see the demand environment to Tulum shaping up.
Who knows… perhaps aa and ua will be the ones to pull back schedules vs delta adding
Well done United! Now that there will be roughly 10+ flights from the US to Tulum, hopefully, this will take some pressure off Cancun which is over capacity.
Yes, this airport should help with congestion, but the location of it is not great. It's still about 30 minutes south of many of the Tulum resorts. Would have been better if they were located in between Tulum and Playa Del Carmen
Surprised SWA has not hopped in. Seems like a perfect destination for their México strategy.
Tulum has already been overrun and completely lost it's authenticity. Airlines are over-offering service to Tulum now. They'll scale back in a year.
The main strip, sure. People still flock there though. Not to mention the surrounding resorts, proximity to Playa del Carmen, and connection to the Tren Maya. Development will continue to develop in the area. The biggest threat to the area isn’t demand, but most likely sargasso.
Many resorts that were 90 minutes plus from CUN will now be a short drive from an airport that is a direct flight for many and at most a single stop for almost everyone in the US.
Not the slightest chance they'll "scale back". Service in March 2025 will greatly exceed service in April 2024. The myopic focus on US carriers in these announcements and coverage in blogs ignores the internationa reality of this area's popularity. Go to Playa del Carmen and you see more Canadians than Americans walking the city. More English, Italians, Mexicans, French... The prospect of avoiding CUN enroute to Playa is thrilling for Playa regulars. I'll happily choose...
Not the slightest chance they'll "scale back". Service in March 2025 will greatly exceed service in April 2024. The myopic focus on US carriers in these announcements and coverage in blogs ignores the internationa reality of this area's popularity. Go to Playa del Carmen and you see more Canadians than Americans walking the city. More English, Italians, Mexicans, French... The prospect of avoiding CUN enroute to Playa is thrilling for Playa regulars. I'll happily choose TQO even if it's slightly longer and slightly more expensive. Demand for access to this coast is huge. Air Canada has service form 8 cities, including 4 daily nonstops from Toronto, 3 from Montreal. And there are 4 other Cnaadian carriers serving CUN. And that's just Canada. At least a tenth of this load will be happy to land 120km to the south. I'd expect AC to send at least 10 flights a day there in high season.