Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico, parent corporation of Tijuana´s airport announced a new Tijuana/Beijing route, is scheduled to open the first trimester of 2017. This new flight will boost the Tijuana/San Diego region connection with major business destinations in Asia.
Aeromexico currently is the only Mexican airline offering a direct flight to Shanghai three days a week that also reaches Narita, Japan. With the addition of Beijing, the airport will double the number of seats for travelers from Tijuana to China, increasing the region`s attractiveness for Asian investment in the city.
Tijuana is the closest point of connection between Latin America and Asia and these two flights will save Asian travelers that do not hold a U.S. passport, many hours of flight-time and indirect routing. It also will reduce the number of foreign visas for Asian and Latin American travelers compared with other countries such as US.
“This new flight will improve the region´s connectivity with Asia,” said Cristina Hermosillo chair of the Tijuana EDC. “It will provide business travelers with more options for traveling directly from Tijuana to China and is something that the region was demanding.”
Tomás Ramírez, commercial director of GAP, said the company is waiting for a regulatory approval process from one of China´s largest private operators to be able to implement the new route. It is possible the flight will also have an extension to Mexico city.
During the meeting, Fernando Bosque Mohino, CEO of GAP also announced a $70 million expansion of the Tijuana airport with a goal of serving 10 million passengers in the next two years.
The Tijuana Airport is the fifth busiest in the country and last year served 4.9 million passengers. Projections for this year estimate an increase of 16% in passenger traffic accounting for more than 5.8 million passengers
The airport expansion will have a positive economic impact to the entire Tijuana-San Diego region due to the new cross-border terminal, CBX, that connects Tijuana Airport with a terminal in Otay Mesa. This binational terminal has handled 18% of passenger traffic, or approximately 733,000 passengers, since its inauguration in December 2015.
Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacífico, S.A.B. de C.V. (GAP) operates 12 airports throughout Mexico´s Pacific region, including the major cities of Guadalajara and Tijuana, the four tourist destinations of Puerto Vallarta, Los Cabos, La Paz, and Manzanillo, and other mid sized cities; Hermosillo, Guanajuato, Morelia, Aguascalientes, Mexicali and Los Mochis. In 2006 GAP´s shares were listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “PAC” and on the Mexican Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “GAP”. In april 2015 GAP acquired 100% of Desarrollo de Concesiones Aeroportuarias, S.L. which owns a majority stake of MBJ Airports Limited, a company operating the Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay, Jamaica.
