The Tulum International Airport recorded a 34 percent drop in international passenger traffic during the first quarter of 2026, the steepest contraction since the terminal began operations two and a half years ago.
The decline marks a turning point for the Felipe Carrillo Puerto airport, inaugurated in December 2023 as a flagship infrastructure project of the previous federal administration. Built to anchor tourism and connectivity in the southern Riviera Maya, the terminal launched with broad commercial expectations and an aggressive international map. Just over two years later, it is losing routes, carriers, and the demand it was designed to capture.
A Sharp Drop at Tulum Airport in Early 2026
Data from the Federal Civil Aviation Agency (AFAC) and the airport administration show that between January and April of this year, the Tulum airport handled roughly 366,000 passengers. International traffic accounted for 178,000 of those travelers, a figure 34 percent below the same period in 2025 and equivalent to more than 90,000 fewer foreign visitors arriving through the terminal.
Domestic flights also slipped, posting a 25 percent decline over the same window. The numbers stand in contrast to 2025, when the airport closed the year with 1.244 million passengers, slightly above the 1.233 million recorded in 2024. The early 2026 figures suggest a year that will fall well short of those totals.
From Twelve International Destinations to Four
The contraction is most visible in the airport's international map. In 2024, Tulum maintained connections to twelve international destinations. Today the terminal operates only four direct routes to the United States: Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, and Miami, served by American Airlines, Delta, and United.
Avianca, Copa Airlines, JetBlue, and Volaris Costa Rica have suspended their Tulum operations, citing demand below expectations. The terminal has also lost its direct links to John F. Kennedy and Newark airports, two of the New York connections that defined its early international appeal.
Frequencies have followed the same trajectory. Two years ago, the airport ran up to ten international departures per day. That number has since fallen to three.
What Is Pulling Demand Down
Industry analysts point to several overlapping factors behind Tulum's slowdown. Security incidents reported throughout the destination, recurring sargassum invasions along its coastline, and an oversupply of hotel rooms built during the post-pandemic boom have each chipped away at the destination's competitive position.
Ground transportation has emerged as a recurring complaint. Travelers and operators have noted that transfers between the airport and the Tulum hotel zone remain significantly more expensive and less varied than equivalent services elsewhere in the region. Reports of fixed taxi rates well above market and limited shuttle alternatives have circulated in industry forums and travel reviews since the airport's first year.
The comparison with Cancun is not incidental. The Cancun International Airport still operates a far broader network of carriers and destinations, and many travelers heading to Tulum continue to use it as their point of entry, accepting the longer ground transfer in exchange for cheaper flights and more options. That dynamic has steadily diluted the original argument for routing Tulum-bound travelers directly through the Felipe Carrillo Puerto terminal.
A Year That Could Close Below 2024
The Tulum airport remains within Mexico's top ten terminals for international passenger volume, a position it earned quickly after opening. But the early 2026 figures have shifted projections sharply, and the gap between expectation and performance is no longer marginal.
If the current pace holds, analysts estimate the airport could close 2026 with around 700,000 passengers, roughly 540,000 fewer than the previous year. That would represent a contraction of more than 40 percent on an annual basis, an outcome few would have anticipated when the terminal opened with federal backing and broad commercial expectations.
The implications extend beyond the airport itself. Reduced international arrivals translate into fewer hotel bookings, lower occupancy at independent restaurants and tour operators, and pressure on a hospitality workforce that grew quickly to meet the post-pandemic demand surge. Tulum's businesses have been calibrating to a different volume of visitors than the one materializing this year.
Whether the slide stabilizes or deepens will depend on how Tulum confronts the structural issues that have eroded its appeal, and on whether suspended carriers see enough recovery in demand to reconsider their return. The airport that was meant to redraw the map of the Mexican Caribbean is now operating at a fraction of its planned capacity. The decisions made over the next several months, by the federal aviation authority, by the airlines that remain, and by Tulum itself, will shape whether 2026 ends as a transitional year or as the start of a longer correction.
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