One of the most unique airport terminals in the world celebrated a successful first year. The Cross Border Xpress opened in December of 2015 and has since welcomed more than 1.3 million customers.
“We are so proud that we’ve been able to survive the first year,” said CBX Chief Commercial Officer Elizabeth Brown. “People have been using the Tijuana Airport for a long time. We’ve just made it easier for them to access it.”
The CBX allows air travelers to park and check in for flights in Otay Mesa. Then they cross a bridge over the border that connects directly to the Tijuana Airport.
“I think it is a great invention for the people that travel a lot across the border,” said Salvador Vargas who has used the CBX five times this year. “I have used it for business, pleasure, and we just used it for the holidays.”
More than a million customers is surprising considering the CBX did very little advertising.
“Where we weren’t able to step up and do massive advertising campaigns, we had a lot of partners that had an invested interest in the success of CBX,” said Brown.
Word of mouth was its biggest asset and the fact that flying out of Tijuana is often cheaper than flying out of Lindbergh to certain destinations.
“Typically the airfares are about 50-percent or more cheaper depending on the time of year,” said Brown.
Brown expects CBX to host more than 1.8 million customers in 2017.
“We’re going to be looking at the growth of the Tijuana Airport, what it’s impact will be on Cross Border Xpress, and how we now need to develop this facility to meet what that expected demand will be over the next 20 years,” she said.
