Expensive airfare and worries about road travel are prompting many North Texas residents to opt for a cheaper alternative: hopping on a bus for up to 24 hours to visit family in Mexico during the end-of-the-year holidays.
“I’m disappointed because we were really excited about bringing our kid to Mexico. He has never been with his grandparents during Christmas,” said Ginna Torres, 48, a Fort Worth resident whose family is from Torreón, Coahuila.
“I started searching for tickets over a month ago, only to find out that they have tripled in price,” she said.
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, average airfares in October were up 43% compared to a year ago, despite higher availability of flights and routes. There are daily flights to at least 28 Mexican destinations from DFW International Airport.
A search on Expedia for a nonstop, round-trip flight between Dallas and Torreón departing in mid-December and early January cost between $1,500 and $2,100.
“We are three, so that’s a lot of money. We can’t pay that,” Torres said.
The Torres family considered driving to Torreón, a 13-hour, 800-mile trip, but constant headlines about rising crime and insecurity on Mexican roads made them rule that out.
“We were afraid because you hear that as soon as they (criminal gangs) spot U.S. plates, they will try to steal the vehicle or kidnap people,” Torres said.
But they felt the holidays without family would not be incomplete, so they invited the grandparents to come to Dallas instead.
For many who are leery about driving their own vehicles into Mexico, riding a bus has become a safer and cheaper alternative.
Adalberto Salas, regional operations manager for Dallas-based Tornado Bus, said his company serves about 45,000 passengers during the holidays, including many that start their annual trip during Thanksgiving.
“We already surpassed, in 15% to 20%, the number of passengers we had pre-pandemic,” Salas said. “A lot of that (increase in ridership) has to do with higher air travel costs, but also because of higher gas prices.”
The average cost of a Dallas-to-Mexico City round-trip bus ticket is around $360.
Air tickets ‘have never been this high’
Expensive airfares and safety concerns will keep Dallas resident Alejandra Villarreal, her husband and two children in Dallas this year.
She wanted to visit her family in Parral, Chihuahua, and from there fly to Mexico City to see her in-laws, but that would mean she’d have to pay thousands of dollars on air tickets.
She began searching for flight deals in the summer, to no avail.
“In August they were already selling at $900. We usually pay $250, $280, $300 for a ticket to Mexico, but (prices) have never been this (high),” she said. “They now cost $1,600. That’s impossible.”
As for driving to see her family in Chihuahua?
“Right now the crime situation there is bad,” she said. “I fear for my children because we have traveled to Mexico ... and yes, we are afraid.”
The highway between Nuevo Laredo and Monterrey, which connects with Interstate 35 on the U.S. side, has been dubbed “the highway of death.”
Dozens of people have gone missing and police have received hundreds of reports of robberies and extortions of travelers from Texas. About 12% of all missing-person reports are from this Tamaulipas highway.
Francisco de la Torre, Mexico’s general consul in Dallas, said this holiday season will see an increase in post-pandemic travel, based on higher demand for consular documents.
“But we also noticed a higher number of (crime) reports in the border,” he said. The consulate touts a program (Héroe Paisano) that provides information from several law enforcement and other government agencies to aid travelers while they are in Mexico.
To avoid becoming victims of crime, many North Texas residents are caravanning to their hometowns, hoping for safety in numbers.
Miguel Huerta, a leader for the Federación de Clubes de Zacatecanos en Fort Worth, said thousands of vehicles gather during the holidays at the border to start their journey to their state in central Mexico, which is about 450 miles from the Texas border.
On Friday, hundreds of vehicles gathered at The Outlet Shoppes at Laredo to being their caravan into Mexico.
“We feel safe by the numbers, although it takes more time when you’re driving only 40 miles an hour,” Huerta said.
María Ramos Pacheco contributed to this report.
