Volaris, currently celebrating its one-year anniversary, kicked off Tianguis with a seminar on its new routes. With a hub in Toluca, located about 30 minutes from Mexico City, but more convenient from some parts of the capital than the Mexico City airport, Volaris services Mexican cities with a price point 40 per cent below other airlines, thanks to planes that only seat one class.

Routes from Toluca include direct flights to Cancun, Guadalajara, Hermosillo, Leon, Los Cabos, Monterrey, Tijuana and Merida.

In honour of its birthday, Volaris launched a new route from Toluca to Culiacan on March 27 and will start flying April 16 from Toluca to Mexicali, Aguascalientes and Villahermosa. The airline also offers shuttle service between San Diego and the Tijuana Airport as well as from the Santa Fe neighbourhood of Mexico City to Toluca Airport.

Another airline featured at this year’s Tourism Tianguis was Aladia, which initiated operations December 2006. It is the only newly launched Mexican airline authorized to fly to and from the United States and currently flies from Monterrey to Cancun five times a week and Puebla to Cancun twice weekly. It plans to start service between Monterrey and Havana shortly, and will launch its first flights to Canada, the United States, Central America, South America and the Caribbean during the second half of 2007.

Mexicana Airlines also announced new flights including service from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) to Monterrey, Nuevo Leon effective March 17 and to Culiacan, Sinaloa April 2, bringing Mexicana’s network of routes connecting Mexico and Los Angeles to 10 cities: Guadalajara, Bajio-Leon, Morelia, Zacatecas, Los Cabos, Cancun, Mazatlan and Mexico City, Monterrey and Culiacan.

For more information about Tianguis 2007, visit www.tianguisturistico.com.mx.