Mexican ULCC Viva Aerobus is adding a new country to its network from June when it launches flights to Ecuador for the first time.

Service between Mexico and Ecuador is currently limited to one nonstop route linking Mexico City Juarez (MEX) and Quito’s Mariscal Sucre International (UIO), operated daily by Aeromexico using Boeing 737-800 and 737-8 aircraft.

Viva Aerobus will also serve Quito but will fly to the city from the leisure destination Cancun (CUN), located on Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula bordering the Caribbean Sea. Operations on the 2,525-km (1,363-nm) route will begin on June 16 operating three times per week aboard Airbus A320s.

Niels Olsen, Ecuador’s tourism minister, said the introduction of nonstop low-cost capacity between the two countries would “energize” two-way leisure traffic, while Quito Turismo general manager María Cristina Rivadeneira added the flights would help Quito to exceed its tourism targets for the year.

Cancun was last connected nonstop to Ecuador by InterJet, the Mexican LCC which grounded operations in December 2020. The airline launched a route to Guayaquil in October 2019 and offered daily flights until the onset of the pandemic in March 2020.

Total O&D traffic between Mexico and Ecuador was 256,477 two-way passengers in 2019, Sabre Market Intelligence data shows. About 34% of passengers traveled nonstop, while Panama City was the largest one-stop connecting market.

The addition of Quito will increase the number of counties served from Mexico by Viva Aerobus to five. The airline already flies to Colombia, Cuba, Nicaragua and the U.S.