HARLINGEN — The white sand beaches of Cancun are a little closer today.
The first direct, nonstop flight from Harlingen’s Valley International Airport to the Mexican tourist mecca flew out Wednesday morning on a new Sun Country Airlines flight.
Prior to today, the only way to fly from VIA to Cancun was with at least one stop in-between.
“As of today there’s a special going on, because of the inaugural, for $99 each way,” said Nico Mirman, director of air service and business development at VIA. “And it’s open for sale in all June and all July.”
“For now, it’s going to be seasonal for the summer,” he added.
The Sun Country flights to Cancun will be the first direct flights to the Mexican resort available from any airport in the Rio Grande Valley. Viva Aerobus offers flights to Cancun from Harlingen but with a stopover at its hub in Monterrey.
“It’s really important that we show and send Sun Country Airlines a really strong message,” said Marv Esterly, director of aviation at VIA. “They take a risk when they come into a new market … so we want to send a strong message to Sun Country Airlines that hey, you made the right decision.”
“It’s really, really difficult to attract new air service to airports,” he added. “That’s probably half the battle. But the other half of the battle is making sure we retain that service, and again, the only way we retain that service is to ensure that we’re utilizing the service.”
Minneapolis-based Sun Country has been increasing its flights to and from VIA over the past year. In April, just over 3,000 Sun Country flights left the airport, and for the year, the airline has boarded over 17,000 passengers, a 24-percent increase over last year.
“It seems like every month we’re amazed more and more at what the airport here in Harlingen is doing,” said City Commissioner Rene Perez, also mayor pro tem. “First, like Marv said, we had the flight to Orlando, then we had the flight to Las Vegas, now we have one to Cancun. So this is a great opportunity for Harlingen.”
