With Spirit gone and a string of smaller carriers folding in recent years, flying cheap out of the US has gotten harder. Fewer airlines means less competition, and that shows up in your fare, your baggage fees, and even the charge to pick a seat. But if your sights are set on Mexico or the Caribbean, a handful of regional and low-cost carriers can still get you to the beach without the big-airline markup.
The trick, according to a recent roundup, is to book direct on the airline's own website rather than through third-party booking sites, which tend to favour Delta, United, and American. Going direct saves you the middleman and surfaces routes the aggregators bury.
For Mexico, four names come up again and again. Volaris is an ultra-low-cost carrier serving nearly 60 US airports — including smaller ones like Madison, Wisconsin and St Louis — with flights to dozens of Mexican cities plus spots in Central and South America. Viva Aerobus, one of Mexico's most popular airlines, runs nonstop service from 17 US cities including Oakland, Dallas-Fort Worth, and Newark. Frontier covers the big Mexican destinations — Cancun, Puerto Vallarta, San Jose del Cabo, Guadalajara — mostly via Denver and Las Vegas. And Sun Country, based in Minneapolis-St Paul, flies to Cancun, Cozumel, Ixtapa, Los Cabos, Mazatlan, and Puerto Vallarta across roughly 140 North American routes.
The Caribbean line-up is even longer. Sun Country stands out for the breadth of its island network — Aruba, the Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos, St Maarten, the US Virgin Islands, and more. Avelo, the Houston-based budget newcomer launched in 2021, is rolling out fresh routes to Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and the Bahamas through 2025 and 2026, which means introductory fares are out there. Arajet, the Dominican Republic's national airline, links Punta Cana and Santo Domingo with Orlando, Chicago, Miami, New York, and Boston, plus hops to San Juan, Kingston, and Aruba. Bahamasair connects Florida gateways (plus Raleigh) to Nassau, Freeport, Marsh Harbor, and some genuinely out-of-the-way islands like Long Island and Inagua.
Two carriers don't fit the ultra-low-cost mould but still price competitively. Caribbean Airlines, the flag carrier for Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago, serves over 25 destinations in 20 countries from New York, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and Orlando — handy if you're heading to a smaller island like Grenada or Guyana. Copa Airlines, the veteran Panamanian carrier founded in 1947, reaches a dozen Caribbean destinations including Barbados, Curacao, and Trinidad & Tobago through its Panama City hub.
Why it matters: if you've been priced out of a winter sun break by the major carriers, these airlines are the workaround — especially if you live near a secondary airport or are flexible about routing. Sun Country and Volaris suit travellers outside the big hubs, Avelo and Arajet are the ones to watch for new-route deals, and Caribbean Airlines or Copa make sense for island-hopping beyond the usual tourist corridors. Just be sure to check baggage and seat-selection fees before comparing fares, as is standard with budget carriers.
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