In an airport already busy with hundreds of incoming and outgoing flights every day, Volaris overbookings recently resulted in long wait lines at Cancun International Airport. There has been an increase in all types of delays and cancelations since the Covid pandemic began, but overbookings have always been an issue facing travelers. As a result of the Volaris overbooking of their flights out of Cancun, more than 150 passengers were left waiting for more than an hour just to check in for their flights.
In addition to overbooking flights, Volaris, like many other airlines, is also dealing with a staff shortage caused by the pandemic. Despite the fact that Covid cases are fewer in number than at the height of the pandemic, the issue stems from people having found other jobs or moving to different places. Some airlines, like Delta who announced hiring a bunch of new staff recently, are having massive hiring events but the training process takes time while the tourism industry is currently booming.
Just in Cancun alone, there has been a huge influx of tourists since the beginning of the year, with spring break and the Easter holiday being the busiest so far. Now millions more visitors are expected over the next couple of months, most from other countries outside of Mexico. The rest of the Riviera Maya area has been just as busy, making the Mexican Caribbean one of the top tourist destinations in the world right now.
At the beginning of the year, the bulk of tourists came from the United States, many of which were trying to escape the heavy restrictions still in place at the end of 2021 and the beginning of 2022. Flights to and from the U.S. are also some of the most commonly canceled flights for various reasons, including staff shortages and bad weather. In the most recent round of Volaris cancelations, four of them were destined for major U.S. cities, including Baltimore, Dallas, New Orleans, and San Francisco.
Volaris flights to Cancun fly out of more than 60 cities in the United States and it is considered one of the lower-cost airlines to use to get to the Mexican Caribbean. For this reason, cancelations can cause a significant amount of chaos at Cancun International Airport. In this case, the cancelations left many families looking for flights to other Mexican cities that they could fly out of in order to return home in a timely fashion, as not everyone is able to get on the next scheduled flights out of Cancun.
Nearly 500 flights a day pass through Cancun International Airport during its busiest times and not much less even during slow periods. For this reason, multiple cancelations can cause major problems for tourists, not only because they have to look for other flights, but also because those who have to wait until another day to fly out have to find lodging in a city already packed with tourists. Until staffing shortages are overcome this is a problem that tourists are going to continue to deal with.
It’s important to stay up to date on flight information while visiting Cancun, so arrangements can be made before getting to the airport if possible. Transportation is more expensive than ever right now so finding out about a cancelation after arriving at the airport just adds to the expense. Sometimes this cannot be avoided but until the staffing and overbooking issues are resolved there are few options for dealing with these annoyances for those who wish to travel.
Despite the many flight cancelations and staff shortages in all portions of the travel sector, Cancun continues to stay busy this year. It will only grow even more popular when issues like these are finally behind us once again.
Plan Your Next Cancun Vacation:
Traveler Alert: Don’t Forget Travel Insurance For Your Next Trip!
Choose From Thousands of Cancun and Riviera Maya Hotels, Resorts and Hostels with Free Cancellation On Most Properties
↓ Join the community ↓
The Cancun Sun Community FB group has all the latest travel news, conversations and tourism Q&A’s for the Mexican Caribbean
Subscribe to our Latest Posts
Enter your email address to subscribe to The Cancun Sun’s latest breaking news affecting travelers, straight to your inbox.