Guatemala’s Tikal Jets flies new route to Cancun

Tikal Jets, a Guatemalan private airline, has just inaugurated a new route to Mexico’s Cancun with plans in the crosshairs to fly on to Monterrey and Havana.

A source from the Central American nation’s company disclosed the route will include a couple of weekly flights every Thursday and Sunday.

Tikal Jets is currently arranging permits and giving the finishing touches to the Monterrey and Havana extensions, both due up in coming weeks.

For its part, the Guatemalan Tourism Chamber indicated in a press release that the opening of the new route has a bearing with the need to capture hard currency money and lay out clear-cut strategies aimed at promoting the country’s tourist sector.

Tourism has panned out to be Guatemala’s second-best hard currency maker trailing behind money remittances. During the first seven months of the ongoing year, the local leisure industry had made $382.5 million for a strong 5 percent increase compared to the year 2002, the Guatemalan Tourism Institute reported.

Last year alone, tourism raked in a grand total of $612.2 million worth of hard currency money.