The Latin America and the Caribbean regions are the top touristic destinations for US travelers in 2022. According to a recent study published by Allianz Travel, the top ten international destinations for US travelers are in countries such as Mexico, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, and the Bahamas. How has this impacted the connectivity via air travel? Let’s find out.

Leading destinations

Sun and beach destinations such as Cancún, San José del Cabo, and Oranjestad have become the favorites for the average US traveler.

Allianz Travel recently released a study reviewing over 1.1 million flight bookings by US tourists looking to travel between May 27 and September 6. Around 25% are looking to spend their holidays abroad.

Mexico leads as the US’ top touristic destination. This country has three destinations in the top ten favorite places for US travelers. These destinations are Cancún, San José del Cabo, and Puerto Vallarta.

According to data by Cirium, Cancún International Airport (CUN) currently receives 831 weekly flights from the United States, served by ten airlines (nine from the United States and only one Mexican, Viva Aerobus). United Airlines operates the most weekly flights to Cancún, with 165, closely followed by American Airlines (164).

An American Airlines Boeing 777-200 seen from above landing.
Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Simple Flying.

Other top Latin American and Caribbean destinations

Allianz’s report outlined the top ten international destinations for US travelers. These are:

  1. Cancun, Mexico
  2. San José del Cabo, Mexico
  3. Oranjestad, Aruba
  4. Montego Bay, Jamaica
  5. Punta Cana, the Dominican Republic
  6. Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
  7. Nassau, the Bahamas
  8. Providenciales, Turks, and Caicos
  9. Charlotte Amalie, US Virgin Islands
  10. Liberia, Costa Rica.

According to data by Cirium, these ten destinations have 2,614 weekly flights, with 409,439 available seats. These numbers are 4.2% and 19.6% above 2019 levels.

American Airlines operates the most flights to these destinations with 651 weekly flights, followed by United Airlines, JetBlue, Delta Air Lines, and Southwest Airlines. The non-US carriers that operate in these markets are Bahamas Air, Viva Aerobus, and Caribbean Airlines.

The impact on the travel industry

In the last two years, the fastest international recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic has taken place in the Americas.

According to the latest data released by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), Latin America is currently above 2019 levels in terms of total seat capacity overall (both domestic and international). North America has not yet fully recovered, but it is close to a full recovery in this segment (take a look at the graph below).

Regional comparison of total seat capacity between 2019 and 2022 provided by ICAO.
Latin America leads the capacity recovery worldwide. Photo: ICAO.

The US-Latin America & Caribbean market has recovered quite strongly. According to data provided by Cirium, as of June 2022, there are 7,815 weekly flights from the United States to Latin America & the Caribbean, still 10.9% below pre-pandemic levels. Nonetheless, this market has 1.2 million available seats each week, surpassing by 1.6% of the levels from June 2019.

Certain airlines have performed exceedingly well in this market. For instance, Frontier Airlines has increased by 220.5% its flights to Latin America & the Caribbean and by 193.4% its number of seats. Viva Aerobus is another carrier that has increased its presence in the United States (doing it despite Mexico’s Category 2 status), surpassing 218.9% and 233.3% of its flight and capacity offers.

Are you planning to visit any of these destinations in the following months? Let us know in the comments below.

Source: Cirium.