Research Overview

Central America is a natural vacation destination for North American tourists. However, the region’s social and political situation has prevented the region’s commercial aerospace industry from realizing its full potential. While most destinations in Central America have decent point-to-point connectivity from major cities, they severely lack intra connection between specific regions. It has been hard for airlines to find the grounds, labor, and political stability required to develop local connectivity either by a feeder model or through a low-cost regional one. There are currently no major players on the Caribbean region even with potentially profitable markets like Santo Domingo, Havana, San Juan, or Barbados, all of which have natural locations and regional destination which could be easily connected. The only cities in Central America that receive considerable traffic are Mexico City, Cancun, and Los Cabos. Other potential international destinations like Guadalajara, Acapulco, Costa Rica, Belize, or Honduras are widely underserved.

COVID-19 might enable local governments to reset their tourism policies and adopt a more reliable business framework, giving the right incentives to enhance air network services, airports infrastructure, and training. This region has the best tourism assets in the world and the key to unlocking unparalleled growth relies on integration within the region and the adoption of collaborative decision-making procedures by local civil aviation agencies, airport authorities, foreign relation ministries, and private investment groups.