Low-cost airline Viva — formerly known as Viva Aerobús — announced two new international routes from Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA) to Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AU) and New York (JFK), starting this winter.
The route to Austin will begin on Nov. 20, and will operate three times a week: Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
Meanwhile, service to JFK will be seasonal and strategic. It will run from Dec. 12 through Jan. 11, with three weekly flights on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays. The route will subsequently return in June 2026, coinciding with the start of the FIFA World Cup. Both Mexico City and New York will be host cities for the competition.
“At Viva, we are preparing to connect Mexicans with various World Cup host cities and to welcome the wave of international tourists who will surely visit our country during this great event,” Viva CEO Juan Carlos Zuazua said.
He added that the carrier would close 2025 with 42 routes to and from AIFA, representing a 44% increase compared to last year.
The new routes join seven different routes the carrier announced in April between the AIFA and the U.S., as part of a strategy to strengthen international connectivity to AIFA. The destinations of those routes include Los Angeles, Dallas, Denver, Chicago, Houston, Miami and Orlando.
“We continue to boost this airport’s international connectivity, tourism, and opportunities for thousands of Mexicans with these new routes,” the General Manager of AIFA Isidoro Pastor Román said. “Thanks to the efforts of airlines like Viva, our staff, our location, and our first-class infrastructure, we are consolidating AIFA as the best option for flying in the Metropolitan Area of the Valley of Mexico,” he said.
According to Pastor, AIFA is projected to transport 7.3 million passengers in 2025, surpassing the previous record of 6.3 million set last year. However, it is still operating below its full capacity.
When the airport opened, officials expected to serve 20 million passengers per year. Yet in the more than three years from its opening in March 2022 to July 2025, the airport has served a total of just 13.5 million passengers.
Though the number of passengers remains low compared to the initial estimates, demand continues to increase each year.
With reports from A21, Puente Libre and Polls.mx
Massive waste of money for an airport nobody wants to use. All because Amlo threw a tamper tantrum.
For those of us that have to travel to CDMX often from Guadalajara the AIFA is just too far away from Santa Fe to try and use it, plus there are few flight options. For international travel with a layover I think it would be great to fly thru there. Finally get to know that airport.
Jim, you may want to look at photos of the site where the new airport was to be built. The area has recently suffered flooding. That particular area is a lake bottom and this year it regained it’s status of a lake. It is my understanding the Geotechnical guys got Almo to listen. The lake bottom would not hold up run ways with large planes under sever wet condition.