Sunport to begin twice-weekly flights to Guadalajara this fall

The Albuquerque International Sunport is once again truly international.

Volaris airlines announced Friday that it would begin twiceweekly, nonstop service from Albuquerque to Guadalajara, Mexico, on Nov. 17.

It will be the first international service from the Sunport since AeroMexico ended service to Chihuahua City in 2009.

“Making Albuquerque directly accessible to international markets is a critical component to tourism and economic development,” Mayor Tim Keller told a news conference Friday. “This direct service

to Mexico will not only open up new opportunities for us to share our city, but will also give New Mexicans more options when traveling and doing business internationally.”

Keller said he knows Albuquerquearea business and leisure travelers want more international destinations and more flights from the airport, and he said he and his staff actively are working to attract more.

The successful pitch to Volaris for the three-hour service to Guadalajara came about with the combined efforts of the city’s aviation and economic development departments as well as representatives from the Albuquerque Hispano Chamber of Commerce.

“They worked tirelessly to make this happen,” Keller said.

Nyika Allen, director of aviation, said the city will offer financial incentives to Volaris to offset “some of the hard costs” of launching service here.

“It’s a multimillion investment for any carrier to enter a new market,” she said. Typically, the incentives include waiving landing and gate fees and terminal rents, as well as helping advertise and promote a new route for the first two years of operation.

She said an air service incentive program is used to land both domestic and international carriers. Allen didn’t immediately have a dollar figure for what those incentives will total for Volaris’ first year of service to Albuquerque.

Officials said the new flight would provide not only tourism opportunities, but capitalize on economic development potential as well. Guadalajara, which is one of Albuquerque’s sister cities, is a hub for flights to elsewhere in Mexico and to Central America.

Volaris bills itself as Mexico’s largest low-cost carrier.

The airline will serve the Sunport on Saturdays and Mondays with an Airbus A320 plane that has a capacity of about 174 passengers. The cost of a round-trip flight is expected to be under $300.

Outbound passengers will depart from an existing gate; construction will commence soon on modifications to the customs facility to handle the inbound flight.