Bloomberg Business Week online reported in June that Mexico's tourism ministry has high hopes for the addition of a multitude of new flights that have recently been announced from Europe, Australia and Latin America. The new routes are expected to wean Mexico away from any lingering dependence on U.S. tourism dollars, and the diversification will likely provide an added boost to the nation's already strong economy.

Mexico's secretary of tourism Gloria Guevara Manzo told Bloomberg the airlines that are currently scheduled to add flights into Mexico over the coming summer months include Virgin Atlantic, Aeromexico, Spanish airline Air Europa, Brazil's TAM and Chile's LAN. Here are the known details about each of these new routes:

• Virgin Atlantic will begin to offer twice-weekly flights from London-Gatwick to Cancun starting in June of 2012. The airline already offers flights to the Riviera Maya via the Virgin Holidays vacation package. 
• Aeromexico has announced an aggressive expansion plan that includes the investment of more than $1.3 billion dollars in developing new destinations in Mexico. A fleet of 20 new planes will help Aeromexico expand its domestic routes to include Huatulco, Colima and Tepic, while also increasing the number of flights to the US, Caracas, Guatemala and Panama.
• Air Europa will begin flying from Madrid-Barajas into Mexico City starting in July of 2011 and will offer four flights each week. This represents a 20 percent increase in the routes to Mexico and will open up 5,000 seats per month.
• Brazil's TAM and Chile's LAN have merged and both plan to expand their reach in Mexico this year, announcing a number of new weekly direct flights into Mexico City from destinations around the world, including Australia, Chile and Brazil starting later in the fall of 2011. 

The Mexico tourism ministry also announced that Mexico has received nearly 900,000 visitors by air in April of 2011, which is an increase of almost 4 percent over the same period in 2010.