Many of the top U.S. airline companies are cutting their number of flights to Mexican beach resorts following reports of cartel violence and increasing passenger fears.
Reports of violence in Mexican beach resorts like Cancun and Playa del Carmen reduced the demand for airline seats. As a result, many carriers are announcing a reduction in the number of scheduled flights to the resorts, the Dallas Morning News reported.
Some travelers reported being robbed after blacking out when they had only had one drink, the Dallas newspaper stated, citing a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigation.
In May alone, 50 people were murdered in the once peaceful resort of Cancun, Breitbart Texas’ Robert Arce reported. At that time, more than 200 people were killed at the popular beach town. In mid-April, two cartel gunmen opened fire on the beach area from jet skis. A few days earlier, nine people were murdered in a 24-hour period.
Playa del Carmen has also seen its share of cartel-connected violence. A drug cartel claimed credit for an explosion that ripped through a passenger ferry in February, Arce reported. The explosion left 25 people injured — including seven Americans.
In July, gunmen assassinated Mexican journalist Ruben Pat Cahuich as he sat outside a local bar. He became the 11th journalist to be murdered in Mexico this year, Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles reported.
United, Delta, American, and Spirit Airlines all reported reduced demand for seats to Mexican resort area airports, the Dallas Morning News continued. As a result, the airlines reported they have or will cut back on routes.
Discussing its quarterly earnings report, American Airlines President Robert Isom said that the company was doing well with its Latin American routes “with the exception of Mexico pleasure markets.”
Spirit Airlines also discussed reduced travel demands, especially to Cancun. “There’s been a lot of travel advisories for Cancun and other Mexican destinations,” Spirit’s chief commercial officer, Matt Klein, told investors in an earnings call. “But, for us, the most impactful is Cancun for sure. And those travel advisories have been out there all year.”
The governments of Germany, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States have all issued travel advisories warning of the dangers of violence in Cancun and its neighboring beach resort communities.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior political news contributor for Breitbart Texas. He is a founding member of the Breitbart Texas team. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX, and Facebook.
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