Low-cost airline Viva Aerobus will begin flying three new Mexico-United States routes in May, increasing the number of services between the two countries to 24.

The three new routes, all of which will launch on May 29, will fly from two airports, the Bajío International Airport (BJX) in Silao, Guanajuato, and the Los Cabos International Airport in Baja California Sur.

The flights from Guanajuato will go to the Texas cities of Houston and San Antonio. There will be three services per week between BJX and Houston and two between BJX and San Antonio.

The third new route is a once-a-week seasonal flight between Los Cabos and the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. That service will end on August 8.

Viva Aerobus has 21 other Mexico-United States services scheduled for the summer season between late March and the end of October, according to aviation data company Cirium. Other U.S. destinations to which the airline flies include Nashville, Dallas Fort-Worth, New York, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Chicago.

The 24 different Mexico-U.S. services scheduled for the coming months is more than double the 11 routes it operated between the two countries in 2019.

Viva Aerobus has expanded its routes despite the sharp global downturn in air travel caused by the coronavirus pandemic. It has started or announced 15 new Mexico-U.S. routes since the start of the pandemic, six of which operate out of Mexico City and four of which depart from Monterrey, Nuevo León.

Among the factors that have helped the budget carrier are the problems at Interjet and Mexico’s open-border policy for incoming air travelers at a time when many other countries have restricted travel.

Both Viva Aerobus and competitor Volaris are looking to start flying to Colombia in the coming months, according to aviation news website Simple Flying. Neither airline currently flies anywhere in South America.

Source: Simple Flying (en)