Toluca Airport: its competition in flights and prices against AIFA and AICM

Toluca International Airport, part of the Mexico Valley Airport System, offers flights to five domestic destinations: Queretaro, Guadalajara, Monterrey, Cancun and Puerto Vallarta, as indicated on its official website.

This air terminal is planned to operate simultaneously with Mexico City International Airport (AICM) and the newly opened Felipe Angeles International Airport (AIFA), which is located on the border of the State of Mexico with Hidalgo, as part of a comprehensive plan to transport nearly 80 million passengers annually.

According to federal authorities, the Toluca terminal should be able to mobilize about eight million passengers, a figure that seems distant, since in 2021 alone it transported about 134,000 users.

On the five commercial routes advertised by Toluca International Airport, the latter competes directly with AICM and AIFA in those of Cancun, Guadalajara and Monterrey.

However, of these three destinations, Toluca only keeps active in Cancun, where it is offered for about fifteen hundred pesos through VivaAerobús, while in Mexico City the same company offers it for up to 2,500 pesos. As far as AIFA is concerned, you can buy tickets to the Mexican Caribbean in 1,480 pesos with Volaris.

Toluca does not offer flights to Monterrey at this time. To that destination the Felipe Ángeles Airport offers a ticket in 1,380 pesos with VivaAerobús, while at Benito Juárez it is obtained in 1629 pesos with the same company.

Guadalajara is another important destination that the terminal in the Mexican capital does not currently have active, although it became part of its flight offer

Toluca Airport currently operates two airlines: TAR and VivaAerobús, which only offer tickets to the cities of Querétaro and Cancun through their systems, while other publicized destinations are not currently available on the booking pages.

TAR offers a weekly flight on Mondays to the city of Querétaro with a price of around 850 pesos on a one-way trip, without considering additional services or extra baggage. The flight leaves at 1 pm and lasts 40 minutes. In its reservation system, the airline does not display information about flights to Monterrey and Puerto Vallarta.

It should be noted that both the Benito Juárez International Airport in Mexico City and the Felipe Ángeles International Airport do not currently have a commercial route to the city of Querétaro, so Toluca has no competition in that destination.

As for VivaAerobús, it offers two weekly flights to Cancun, Quintana Roo, at a cost of approximately 1,500 pesos. The departure is at 11 in the morning and the approximate duration is two hours and five minutes.

For users in the Toluca Valley or western Mexico City, this option represents an alternative to the flights offered by the same company from Mexico City, where an AICM ticket to Cancun is around 2,500 pesos, although the frequency is nine daily departures.

Despite the fact that in 2020 the Mexican governor, Alfredo del Mazo, inaugurated the opening of this airline's routes to the destinations of Cancun and Monterrey, for now only flights to the Mexican Caribbean can be found.

Toluca International Airport recorded an influx of just 134,305 passengers in 2021, after it was thought at some point that it could mobilize up to 8 million users.

After the departure of several airlines such as Volaris and Interjet, the airport was restricted to private flights, cargo transport and aviation schools.

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