Traveling to Monterrey just got faster with a new nonstop flight the McAllen International Airport unveiled Thursday.
Officials from Aeromar, a Mexican airline, joined officials from the city and the airport to announce the new route to Monterrey, which will begin in April.
"This is an amazing day," City Manager Roel "Roy" Rodriguez said. "I've been with the city of McAllen for 17 years and I can't remember the first time that I heard 'We need a route to Monterrey from McAllen' and so this is literally something that we had been working on with several airlines for that long."
Rodriguez stressed that direct flights from Monterrey were a great opportunity for the Rio Grande Valley because of the fact that the region depends on Mexican nationals to come and shop here.
And for more than a year, COVID-19 restrictions have stopped shoppers with tourist visas from coming into the country, that is, unless they fly in. The restrictions, which were extended for another month on Thursday, only allow those with essential business to travel through land ports of entry.
While establishing the route to Monterrey had been a years-long priority for Rodriguez and Elizabeth Suarez, the director of aviation, those COVID-19 restrictions strengthened their efforts.
"It's territory that none of us had seen before as everyone knows," Rodriguez said of the pandemic. "The number of passengers on planes plunged because of masks and social distancing."
"It also made us realize that this is an opportunity to attempt this flight that we've never had, to Monterrey and back, and see how this works because right now there's a real need," Rodriguez added. "This isn't just a want; it's a need for people to get over here and back."
Aeromar previously launched direct flights from McAllen to Mexico City, the success of which Rodriguez credited to the partnership between the city and the airline, which is going on eight years.
"We are very proud to announce our new route to Monterrey, and equally important, to celebrate eight years of a great success story in McAllen that started on March 18, 2013," Danilo Correa, Aeromar CEO, said in a news release. "We are grateful for the support and trust from city leaders and the community, which has been instrumental in continuing to build up Aeromar's presence in McAllen."
Suarez, the director of aviation for the McAllen airport, noted the importance of such partnerships during a time when the airline industry has suffered from a low number of passengers because of the pandemic.
Overall enplanements at the McAllen airport for 2020 were down 55% from 2019, while deplanements there were 52% compared to 2019. When looking at the figures by month, though, enplanements and deplanements both improved in December 2020 compared to the months prior.
"The airport has been through so much and these partnerships have secured that we continue to move forward despite the challenges that we faced in 2020," Suarez said during the announcement Thursday, adding that they're hopeful for 2021.
"We're starting to see those increases in the leisure market and that makes us extremely optimistic for what we're going to continue to see this year and perhaps the start of a real recovery," Suarez said, "not just for the airport but overall in the economy and we're hopeful about growing that ridership and enplanement figure even greater with some of these new routes."
The hour-long flights to Monterrey will be year round beginning on April 22, initially running on Thursdays and Sundays.
They will depart McAllen at 1:15 p.m. and arrive in Monterrey at 2:15 p.m. Return flights will depart Monterrey at 3:10 p.m. and arrive in McAllen at 4:10 p.m.
One-way flights will cost $180 and round-trip flights will cost $236 with all taxes and fees included.
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