Los Angeles' 10 longest Mexican routes

Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) is home to some of the world’s longest flights. Its routes to Doha (Qatar Airways, 8,306 miles), Jeddah (Saudia, 8,332 miles), Dubai (Emirates, 8,339 miles), and Singapore (Singapore Airlines, 8,770 miles) all featuring in the list of the top 20 longest passenger routes, per Afar.

LAX is also one of the major hubs for the most popular international destination from the US: Mexico. There are currently 271 direct routes between the US and Mexico (Canada is next-most popular with 226 routes), and with 17 direct flights, Los Angeles is the third-highest originator of flights to Mexican destinations, behind Dallas (27) and Houston (24).

Perhaps surprisingly, Alaska Airlines is the largest carrier from LAX to Mexico, flying 10 of those 17 routes, and the carrier claims to have the most flights, non-stop routes, and seats from the West Coast to Mexico.

With all of this in mind, let's combine these two metrics of distance and flights to Mexico to take a closer look at the top 10 longest Mexican routes from LAX, and the incredible diversity of these flights.

For this list, we will be looking at data for January 2025 from Cirium, an aviation analytics company.

10 Guadalajara (1,307 miles)

68 outbound flights a week

Tenth on the list in terms of distance, Guadalajara is first for the most flights from LAX to any Mexican destination. It is also seventh on the list of top 10 international routes from the US, with an average of 68 outbound flights a week or nearly ten per day.

Top of the list is the Mexican low-cost carrier Volaris , which has 68 Mexico-US routes in total and nine to LAX. It offers four daily LAX-GDL flights, using its Airbus A320 family aircraft.

The other large Mexican LCC, Viva (formally Viva Aerobus), is the second largest carrier on the route, using its A320s for twice-daily flights, while Mexican flag carrier Aeromexico has a daily flight using its 737 MAX 8s.

Surprisingly, none of the large legacy carriers that call LAX a hub operate from there to Mexico’s third-largest metropolitan area, and the sole US representation is Alaska Airlines which uses the full gamut of its 737 variants for twice-daily operations.

9 Manzanillo (1,339 miles)

6 outbound flights a week

Manzanillo is a city on the Pacific Ocean that contains Mexico's busiest port, responsible for handling Pacific cargo for the Mexico City area.

More recently, it has also emerged as a tourism destination, popular with deep-sea fishing enthusiasts and with a large number of resorts on the De Santiago peninsula which juts out into the Pacific north of the city center.

Most air traffic to Manzanillo goes via Mexico City, courtesy of Aeromexico with twice-daily flights. However, the city does have direct routes to five US airports, of which LAX has the highest traffic with 6 weekly flights.

These are provided by Alaska Airlines, which flies the route five times a week (increasing to daily next month) using a mix of 737-900s and Embraer 175s, and Aeromexico, which has a weekly flight on Saturdays.

8 Leon (1,366 miles)

5 outbound flights a week

Leon, officially Leon de Los Aldama, is a city of about 2 million people in central Mexico, renowned globally for its large leather industry, making shoes, boots, belts, jackets, and other leather accessories.

Volaris is the sole carrier on the LAX-BJX route, flying five times a week using its A320 fleet. Interestingly, the city has 11 direct routes to the US, with much better connections to other cities such as Dallas (3x daily with American), Houston (3x daily with United), and Chicago (2x daily between O’Hare and Midway with Volaris and Viva).

7 Uruapan (1,419 miles)

1 outbound flight a week

For those of us who enjoy guacamole (which is surely everyone), the city of Uruapan is small in size with just over 350,000 residents, but is notable for being the center of Mexico's avocado-growing region (the country is the world’s leading producer of the fruit).

Most of the crop is distributed from here nationally and internationally.

The small Uruapan International Airport is a single-runway facility that currently only has two destinations. Volaris operates nine weekly flights to Tijuana and a single flight a week (on Thursdays) that connects to Los Angeles.

This will increase to twice-weekly flights when the summer schedules kick in.

6 Morelia (1,442 miles)

5 outbound flights a week

Morelia, situated in central Mexico, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site for its well-preserved historical buildings and layout of the historic center.

For tourists looking for historical sites, Morelia is a must-see, as the historic center is virtually unchanged from the original layout of the city when it was founded in 1541, and the surrounding area is famous for millions of migrating butterflies.

Like Leon and Uruapan, Volaris is the sole operator on the LAX-MLM route, flying four days a week with two flights on a Thursday.

The city has seven other direct routes to the US, with daily flights to Dallas, Houston, and Chicago, and interestingly, is one of three Mexican cities (along with Guadalajara and Leon) to have a direct route to the Californian agricultural hub of Fresno.

5 Ixtapa / Zihuatanejo (1,537 miles)

6 outbound flights a week

Zihuatanejo is a city on the Pacific Coast, about 150 miles northwest of Acapulco, and part of Mexico’s Costa Grande.

If the name is vaguely familiar, it might be because it was the closing scene from the 1994 film The Shawshank Redemption, in which the protagonist Andy Dufresne (played by Tim Robbins) escapes from prison to Zihuatanejo.

The resort town of Ixtapa is located just 3 miles north, and together they are served by the Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo International Airport, which has direct routes to seven different US destinations.

The route connecting ZIH and LAX is served solely by Alaska Airlines, which flies the route six times a week using the larger versions of its 737 fleet. The airline also connects to ZIH from San Francisco, San Diego, and Chicago.

4 Mexico City (1,553 miles)

53 outbound flights a week

The Mexican capital is the second-busiest destination on this list, and LAX is one of 26 direct routes that it has to US destinations. Interestingly, LAX only has direct flights to the city’s primary Benito Juarez International Airport (MEX), and not to the secondary airport of Felipe Angeles International Airport (NLU), which is favored by LCCs.

Aeromexico is the dominant carrier on the LAX-MEX route, operating four daily flights. Three of these are using its 737 MAX fleet, but once a day, it also employs a larger 787-8.

This flight and a daily 787-9 service between Mexico City and New York JFK are the only widebody flights on the 271 routes between the US and Mexico.

Also on the LAX-MEX route are Volaris and Viva, both utilizing their A321 fleets, while Delta Air Lines also provides a daily connection using its 757 pocket rockets.

A new entrant will arrive in February, when American Airlines will join as a fifth LAX/MEX operator, providing a daily service using its 737 MAX 8 aircraft.

3 Oaxaca (1,781 miles)

4 outbound flights a week

Oaxaca is a city of about 700,000 people in south-central Mexico. Heritage tourism makes up an important part of the city's economy, and it has numerous colonial-era structures as well as significant archeological sites and elements of the continuing native Zapotec and Mixtec cultures. The city, together with the nearby archeological site of Monte Albán, has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Oaxaca has daily flights to Dallas and Houston with American Airlines and United Airlines respectively, but, to LAX, it is Volaris that provides the sole service, flying the route four times a week using its A320neos.

2 Merida (1,971 miles)

Only 2 flights in January

Merida is a city of about 1,300,000 and the administrative, cultural, and financial capital of the Yucatan Peninsula. It is another heritage tourism destination, with a rich history of both the Maya and Spanish cultures, and one of the largest old town districts on the continent.

While it is the second-longest route to Mexico from LAX, it is also the least trafficked, with only two flights in January provided by Viva, and no subsequent direct connections to LAX from next month onwards.

If you want to get to Merida from the US, your best options are via Houston (daily flights with United Airlines) or Miami (daily flights with American Airlines).

1 Cancun (2,119 miles)

39 outbound flights a week

The longest Mexican route from LAX is to the highly popular resort city of Cancun, which connects to 44 US airports and 21 Canadian airports, more than any other Mexican city.

Over 30 million visitors passed through Cancun International Airport in 2024, of which more than 20 million were international visitors.

Unsurprisingly, given this level of popularity, the LAX-MEX route is dominated by US carriers. Both United and Alaska Airlines provide twice-daily service using the larger variants in their 737 fleets, while Delta has daily service that utilizes its new A321neos on what is one of its longest routes for the type.

American Airlines only offers a single weekly flight to Cancun from LAX, but also flies there from 17 other US destinations, including seven daily flights from its hub at Dallas.