Mexicana's capital connection deal: BWI - Mexico City

There's significant demand for flights from the Washington, DC area to Mexico City, not to mention a demand for discount airfares between the two. Mexicana understands. That's why the carrier is putting the route on sale for a mere $140.

That's the price of one-way passage between Baltimore/Washington International (BWI) Airport and Benito Juarez International (MEX). BWI is, by far, the lowest fare airport in the metropolitan Washington, DC area. Both discount airlines Southwest and AirTran Airways have major operations there.

Mexicana's $140 fare is one-way, but that price is based on a round-trip purchase. You'll have to travel by December 15. That, of course, cuts out Christmas from this cut-rate deal, but there's still Thanksgiving. Seats are limited. This discount airfare includes neither taxes nor fees, and you can stay no more than 15 days at this rate.

If you're really into discount travel, there are few airports on the planet better than BWI. Not only do Southwest and AirTran offer great domestic fares to the place, it's easy to get there by ground too. There's frequent rail service from Washington's Union Station to BWI's nearby rail station. A free shuttle bus takes you from there to the terminal.

© Cheapflights Ltd Jerry Chandler

Comments

[TC]

Being my home airport, I too love BWI. In addition to being usually cheaper to drive in and out of than Dulles, it's also cheaper to park at: $9/day is as cheap as it gets for long-term parking at IAD, but BWI's medium-term garage is about that much. Off-site can be had for as low as $6/day.

Still, I am perennially frustrated by two things: first, that BWI has virtually no transcon; and second, it has even less international.

On this latter point, I am convinced the problem is that the airport is owned by the State of Maryland. It was recently reported in the Baltimore Sun that the transit authority had "illegally" guaranteed revenues to British Airways, because it didn't disclose them to the legislature. The airport authority countered that keeping the numbers a secret is the way these things are done.

British Airways is the ONLY flagship European carrier at BWI (even Icelandair has suspended service for the winter), and had they not had these guarantees, they'd be gone. It's incredibly frustrating that the rest of the trans-atlantic service goes to Dulles, and I can only assume it's because the state cannot maneuver fast enough to compete.