Best US Cities for connections to South America, Mexico and Central America?
 

Hi FlyerTalk community --

I'm about to hire a US-based telecommuting employee who will need to travel regularly to Mexico, Central and South America (my guess is most repeating trips will be to Mexico and Brazil, but every country in the region will be likely throughout the year).

I'd like this person to be based in a city with a lot of direct connections to the region, without layovers elsewhere in the US. What US cities would you recommend I target my employee search?

I was thinking Miami is probably a top contender, with Atlanta, Dallas or Houston as possibilities? I'm looking for cities with the MOST direct connections to the whole region.

Thank you in advance for your advice.

You can find the Wikipedia page for all of those airports -- and others -- by Googling "XXX airport wiki," where you substitute the desired airport's three-letter code for "XXX." The airport's Wikipedia page will show all airlines serving that airport, and their destinations.

If your employee will be heading to different cities in Brazil, I suspect that AA out of MIA will serve the most Brazilian airports with nonstops. If, on the other hand, your employee will only be going to Rio or Sao Paulo, any of the four airports you are considering would probably work.

Does the employee HAVE to be based in the US? I ask because Brazil is a big country with relatively few direct international connections to US cities, aside from the hubs of GRU and GIG. A possible alternative would be Panama City. Copa Air flies out of PTY and serves a large and growing number of Latin American and US cities. Their airfares are generally reasonable and Panama City would be a great place to live IMO, certainly preferable to Miami or Houston.

If the employee has to be based in the US then I agree with guv1976 that MIA likely has the most direct connections to Brazilian airports other than GRU & GIG. MIA also has a lot of direct flights to Central America and, I presume, to Mexican destinations other than MEX.

Cool. Did not know about the airport WIKI. I'll give that a try.

Yes, my company mandates that the employee must reside in the US. I agree that Panama City would be better

Vegas might be an option... LAS has several non-stop to Mexico (VOLARIS, AreoMexico, VivaAeroBus, Interjet), COPA to PTY with easy onward to South America, and LATAM flies non-stop LAS to SAO.

You have more options at LAX and NYC, other airports are dominated by one or two airlines.
10+ flights to MEX
AV to BOG
CM to PTY
LATAM to LIM, SCL
AA to EZE, GRU
LAX is also close to TIJ, which has lots of Mexico domestic flights.

Curious what will the employee do;)

Training! Thanks. It's something to consider.