The fallout from Hurricane Odile continues, now one week after the category 3 storm lashed the Baja Peninsula and stranded nearly 40,000 tourists.
Although relief flights operated by governments and even by airlines have been successful in evacuating the stranded, the major airport for the
region—Los Cabos International Airport (SJD)—remains closed to regularly scheduled service and, as of Friday, the Directorate General of Civil
Aeronautics suspended relief operations in order to begin airport repairs.
The latest word on a reopening date for SJD comes from the airport's operator, Grupo Aeroportuario del Pacifico, who are now planning to welcome
limited flights no earlier than September 26. The danger lies not in the actual flying to/from or landing at the airport since the runways and
taxiways themselves were not damaged. It's the airport buildings serving passengers—Terminal 1 with a collapsed roof and Terminal 2 with structural
damage, both a general mess—which delay the resumption of flights.
In their blog, Alaska Airlines shares some numbers from their batch of relief flights:
In all, nine relief flights carried 1,549 people out of Los Cabos on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Two relief flights carried 229 people out of
Mazatlan on Tuesday and Wednesday. Friday’s relief flight out of Loreto carried 140 people.
According to Travel Weekly, Mexican tourism officials this week will "meet in New York with some of the industry’s larger travel providers to address
the region’s challenges during the upcoming weeks and months," that is, if they can get there. Mexico Tourism Secretary Claudia Ruiz Massieu and
Mexico Tourism Board CEO Rodolfo Lopez-Negrete will discuss “a plan of action” on September 25, at which time we should know more.
Late last week we received more first-hand reports from travelers experiencing the frantic exodus from Los Cabos Airport. Here's one such story:
[The hotel] told everyone that we had to leave today and gave us 3 times. 8am, 10am and 12. They did not give us any breakfast and said they had no
water either. By 9am there were no buses so we took a cab to the airport. It took us 6 hrs to make our way to the front of the line and get out.
It appeared from what we heard from other travelers that the other hotels did the same. They wanted to get everyone out. We were so lucky that
American Airlines, Alaska, Delta, Southwest, Virgin and other airlines sent planes to pick up Americans. There are still many travelers having to
spend the night camping out.
There's also the matter of the airport staff to consider. You see above what Odile did to a massive supported structure, but bear in the mind that
homes and entire neighborhoods were also totaled, and some of the residents now homeless or facing rebuilding or repair of their residences work at
the airport and the rest of Cabo's tourism sector. Without sufficient shelter and transport, staff may be significantly low, which in turn increases
wait time and limits on activities and amenities. Whereas visitors to Cabo may be losing a vacation because of Odile, residents of the area have lost
much more.
As far as other forms of travel to Cabo, all cruise lines visiting the port have postponed their stops. Carnival is scheduled to be among the first to
return, predicting October 4 (subject to change).
If you're scheduled to travel to Los Cabos, La Paz, or anywhere else in the Baja Peninsula in the upcoming month, please check with your airline and
other travel providers to discuss options.
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