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It was apparently not as hot in Tulum, Mexico, as United Airlines originally expected it to be.

The Chicago-based carrier filed plans over the weekend to scrap one of its new international routes and temporarily suspend two other routes, as first seen in the Cerium schedule and later confirmed by a carrier spokesperson.

Specifically, United will exit the Los Angeles to Tulum market effective March 30, 2025. The airline will also suspend flights from Chicago and Newark to Tulum during the summer season.

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Newark service Oct. 26, 2025 will resume, although United is still evaluating whether it will bring Chicago back to Tulum for winter 2025.

In a statement, a United spokesperson shared that “we regularly adjust our schedules for a variety of reasons, including demand and the broader needs of our network.”

During the peak summer schedule from May 22, 2025 to August 18, 2025, United will increase service from Houston to Tulum to twice daily.

All of these routes were announced just over a year ago, as the carrier joined the rush of US airlines wanting to land their planes at this shiny new airport that was supposed to be the long-awaited gateway directly to Tulum.

The new Tulum International Airport (TQO) was built to accommodate the growing demand for travel to this popular beach destination along Mexico’s already busy Riviera Maya.

Currently, most visitors to Tulum fly into Cancun International Airport (CUN) and then travel approximately two hours by car or bus.

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Since the new Tulum airport opened last year, it has made travel easier. But it might also attract a little more interest from US airlines.

In the weeks leading up to the airport’s opening, nearly every major US airline announced new service to Tulum, quickly adding the destination as their latest pin on the route map.

In United’s case, the airline added service from four domestic hubs: Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles and Newark. All of these flights took off earlier this year, but they’re largely not performing up to United’s expectations.

While United originally announced four nonstop routes to Tulum, it will operate just one (from Houston) this summer.

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In fact, United Tulum is not alone in experiencing weaker-than-expected demand. Just last month, American Airlines filed a plan to stop flying from Charlotte to Tulum starting February 13, 2025.

This week, JetBlue filed plans to scrap summer service from New York to Tulum.

Speaking to TPG about the new Tulum airport, American network chief Brian Znotins quipped that “the whole industry had too much capacity to absorb everyone at once; we need to get people more familiar with Tulum — a lot of people are familiar with Tulum, but with Tulum We have a lot more seats than people are familiar with, so you’re looking back at us and the industry as a whole. A little bit behind.”

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