TJ International and Mexican Budget Carriers

Early Sunday morning, my dad drove Laura and me across the Otay border and dropped us off at the Tijuana airport. As he drove, he cautioned us not to be too put off by the funkiness of the run-down TJ terminals. Yes, it was dirty and run-down, but really, you just had to get used to it. He off-handedly mentioned that a Spanish company had bought a lot of Mexican airports several years ago (though he got out of the travel agency business decades ago, he still closely follows things like that) and he wondered whether they had put any money into spiffing it up.

They have indeed. I was last in the TJ airport 8 years ago for a trip to the Yucatan, and it is significantly spiffier now. It´s certainly smaller than San Diego´s Lindeberg, but the inside is clean, with new signage, and your basic assortment of airport food and duty free shops. I´m guessing that this is in part due to the Spanish buy-out, but also in large part to the profusion of new Mexican budget carriers like Volaris, Viva Aerobus, and Avolar - the airline Laura and I flew to Guadalajara.

These new airlines are run on the no-frills model of the ultra-profitable Ryanair and Easyjet in Europe, and the are making the prices of air travel within Mexico competitive with those of bus travel. The TJ airport was absolutely jammed with people - much busier than I had seen it the last time. And I´m guessing that it has something to do with the new affordability of traveling by plane.

There were a few snags with our flight. First it was delayed, then we got on a different one later, which was routed via Queretaro, not the TJ-Guadalajara direct flight we had originally booked. We arrived in Guadalajara a couple of hours later than planned. But really, when you´re talking travel in Mexico, a couple of hours delay is not that bad. And when the ticket costs just a hundred bucks (including all taxes, etc.), it´s something I am definitely willing to deal with. I´m willing to bet that my dad will be dropping me off at the TJ airport for many future trip like the one I´m beginning today.