Airline service arrived arm-in-arm with the nascent tourism industry in Baja California Sur after the end of the Second World War. However, in those early pioneer days, as Peter Gerhard and Howard E. Gulick noted in an early edition of “The Lower California Guidebook,” the region was also “popular among people owning light airplanes,” who could “fly down for a weekend of fishing, hunting, etc., at remote spots which otherwise could be reached only by a long and arduous automobile trip.”
Trans Mar de Cortés was the region’s first dedicated airline — BCS didn’t become a state until 1974 — offering service aboard DC-3s as early as 1954. That company, owned by Mayo Obregón, son of Mexico’s 46th president, Álvaro Obregón, was instrumental in opening up the area for tourism. However, it was only after Aeronaves de México (now Aeroméxico) acquired Trans Mar de Cortés in 1962 that the first direct flights from Los Angeles to La Paz were scheduled aboard DC-6s that could bring in as many as 62 passengers at a time.
The opening of the Los Cabos International Airport
The flow of tourists to Los Cabos, then home to only a handful of hotels, would ramp up in the 1970s due to two major infrastructure projects: the completion of the transpeninsular highway in 1973 and the opening of Los Cabos International Airport in San José del Cabo in 1977. The latter allowed for as many as 3,000 visitors per day, although it bears noting that neither the name Los Cabos nor the municipality it represents was established until 1981.
The Los Cabos International Airport has only continued to grow its facilities and passenger capacity, from its opening until 1999 under the jurisdiction of the federal government and the parastatal Aeropuertos y Servicios Auxiliares (ASA), and since then via a 50-year concession granted to Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico (GAP). Under the latter’s stewardship, Los Cabos International Airport has become the sixth busiest in the country, servicing upwards of 20,000 passengers a day on average. That volume is expected to double over the next decade, thanks to ongoing expansions and upgrades.
The search for new markets
However, remarkably, as recently as 2016, more than 60 years after the first regional airline service, Los Angeles remained by far the most likely destination of origin for travelers bound for Los Cabos. It is only in the last 10 years or so that Los Cabos has truly connected to the world, and that progress is ongoing.
In fact, when Rodrigo Esponda Cascajares was named managing director of Fideicomiso de Turismo de Los Cabos (aka FITURCA, or the Los Cabos Tourism Board) in 2016, Los Angeles remained so firmly entrenched as the major market for Los Cabos that there still wasn’t a non-stop flight from New York City or service at all from many U.S. states. That quickly changed — service has grown from less than 20 U.S. markets to 32 in under a decade — as the Los Cabos Tourism Board has spearheaded an effort to expand connectivity and introduce Los Cabos as a destination to new travelers around the globe.
Here’s where those efforts stand as of 2025.
U.S. and Canada connectivity
The U.S. and Canada remain the major international markets for Los Cabos tourism, accounting for the majority of arrivals in 2024. Canada’s contributions have fluctuated in recent years due to a slow bounce-back following the pandemic years of 2020-2021, but 2024 was a very strong year for Canadian tourism to Los Cabos. Of the 62% market share of international tourists last year, the U.S. accounted for 2.2 million, and Canada for 360,000.
Several new flights have been announced this year from the North American nations, including new routes to Los Cabos from Mexican carrier Volaris, departing from Oakland, California, and Ontario, Canada; new weekly flights from Nashville, Tennessee; direct flights from Indianapolis; expansion of service on American Airlines’ flights from Chicago; and upcoming holiday season flights from Austin, Texas courtesy of Delta.
Domestic flights
Mexico City has always been the primary connection point for domestic travelers to Los Cabos, although more than a dozen other national routes have since been established from Cancún, Ciudad Juárez, Culiacán, Guadalajara, Guanajuato, Hermosillo, La Paz, León, Los Mochis, Mérida, Mexicali, Monterrey, Puebla, Puerto Vallarta, Querétaro, Tijuana and Toluca. The routes from Puebla and Mérida were among the most recently announced and began in 2024.
Through the first seven months of 2025, 847,250 Mexican travelers arrived in Los Cabos, as compared to 2.35 million internationals, with the domestic market representing 36% of the total tourist count.
Europe
There is only one flight currently coming directly from Europe to Los Cabos: that operated by Condor Airlines out of Frankfurt, Germany. The service aboard Airbus A330-900neo airliners with a carrying capacity of up to 310 passengers launched for the 2024-2025 season and has been renewed for a second one, from Nov. 3, 2025, to April 6, 2026.
Condor holds the record for the longest regularly scheduled flight to Los Cabos on Earth, covering 9,890 kilometers in a little over 11 hours twice weekly to deliver some 16,000 German and other European tourists during the winter “high season.” Considering each is estimated to spend more than US $3,000 during their 10-day average trips, that’s a nearly $50 million impact on the local economy.
However, the potential for other flights from Europe does exist based on historical precedent. Iberojet, for example, operated seasonal flights from Madrid to Los Cabos during 2022 and 2023, and the U.K.’s TUI Airways initiated the first direct European flights from London’s Gatwick Airport between 2019 and 2023.
Central and South America
Of all the new routes announced this year, none have generated the excitement of upcoming flights from Panama via Copa Airlines. Billed as “the Hub of the Americas,” Panama’s leading airline connects to more than 80 destinations in 33 countries across Central America, South America and the Caribbean, opening up the possibility of travel to Los Cabos from virtually anywhere in the Western Hemisphere and the entirety of Latin America.
“This achievement is the result of more than nine years of constant work and collaboration with Copa Airlines,” Esponda noted in July 2025. “For the first time, we are directly opening our doors to the Latin American market, which will be key to continuing to increase tourist arrivals from the region.”
The flights to Los Cabos will operate nonstop from Tocumen International Airport (PTY) in Panama City, three days per week aboard Boeing 737-800 airliners starting in December of this year. The early expectation is that this new route, the 61st worldwide to Los Cabos, will, with its numerous connections, attract as many as 25,000 tourists a year from Latin America.
What’s next?
Next on the agenda, one presumes, is opening up routes to Africa, Asia and Australia. However, lest one think Los Cabos has forgotten its roots, there are also 200,000 passengers from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) scheduled in the next six months, still more than any other U.S. destination.
Chris Sands is the former Cabo San Lucas local expert for the USA Today travel website 10 Best and writer of Fodor’s Los Cabos travel guidebook. He’s also a contributor to numerous websites and publications, including Tasting Table, Marriott Bonvoy Traveler, Forbes Travel Guide, Porthole Cruise, Cabo Living and Mexico News Daily.
