Passengers on international flights to Mexico with Volaris are often faced with an additional payment that appears during the booking process after selecting a fare. We are not talking about a “hidden airline commission”, but about the state migration fee DNR (Derecho de No Residente / Derecho de Visitante). This is a mandatory payment required by Mexican law for foreigners entering the country as a visitor without the right to work (tourism, business travel, etc.).
By its legal nature, the DNR — This is not an aviation tax or a carrier service. This is a federal fee levied by the state for the very fact of a foreign citizen’s entry into Mexico. The law expressly states that such a fee is required to be paid by visitors arriving by air, sea or land in the status of visitante sin permiso para realizar actividades remuneradas. That is, when entering Mexico, you must pay this tax. It may not be paid by those staying in the country for less than 7 days, but when arriving by air it is always charged.
In normal air travel practice, this payment is already included in the total cost of the ticket. When traveling by air, the fee, in most cases, is paid automatically when purchasing an air ticket and is then transferred by the airline to the state. It is for this reason that passengers of most carriers do not even notice its existence: it is already included in the fare, like many airport and government taxes.
Volaris took a different path. The company fundamentally does not include a number of mandatory payments in the base ticket price and offers to pay them separately — either at the time of booking or later through trip management. The carrier officially applies a similar approach, in particular, to the TUA airport tax, which is not considered an airline fee and can be paid later, but must be paid before check-in. DNR in the Volaris sales system is structured in a similar way: as a separate mandatory payment, without which transportation is impossible.
The practical meaning of such a model — financial. When the fee is included in the fare, the passenger has the right to demand a refund and government payments when returning the ticket. When it is highlighted as a separate line and paid as an independent operation, the return mechanism becomes more complicated, which reduces the administrative and financial risks of the carrier. It is for this reason that with Volaris this payment most often appears as an “surcharge”, while with other airlines it is already included in the ticket price.
It is important to understand that DNR does not apply to everyone. The law exempts Mexican citizens and foreigners with current Mexican resident status (temporary or permanent) from paying it. However, during the online purchase process, Volaris automatically considers any foreigner a tourist and charges a fee if the customer does not indicate Mexican citizenship. The check is carried out already at the airport: if the passenger declared himself a citizen of Mexico, this must be documented during registration.
If the fee has not been paid at the booking stage, the Volaris system gives you the opportunity to pay it later using the booking code through the «My Trips» section. It must be paid before check-in, otherwise boarding will not be possible. This means that the payment technically cannot be avoided: it is either covered in the ticket or paid separately, but must be paid before departure.
In addition, you should distinguish between DNR and other fees that passengers often confuse with each other. In particular, the TUA airport tax is not set by the airline, but by the airport itself and is charged for the use of its infrastructure. Its size is determined by each airport separately and is subject to change. The structure of the ticket price can simultaneously contain several different mandatory payments of different legal nature: migration (DNR) and infrastructure (TUA).
Volaris does not ask to pay any additional tax, it simply shows it separately to the passenger, whereas most airlines prefer to hide the same payment within the fare.
Volaris Airlines — Mexico's largest ultra-low-cost carrier operating on a «shared fare» (unbundled pricing), when the base price includes only the flight itself, and all other elements — baggage, seat selection, priority, and sometimes mandatory government fees — are displayed in separate positions. The company is based in Mexico City (AICM and AIFA), Cancun, Guadalajara, Monterrey and Tijuana. Volaris operates 14 Airbus aircraft of various modifications with an average age of 6.8 years.
In 2023, the airline took a leading position in the domestic market of Mexico, providing 38.27% of all passengers carried and ahead of its closest competitors: VivaAerobus with a share of 33.23%, Aeroméxico — 27.53%. On international routes its presence was much more modest — about 11.4% of the market, where it was behind both Aeroméxico and a number of American carriers. During the same year, the airline carried a total of 33.5 million people. The route network included 44 cities in Mexico, 23 — in the USA, and in addition to this direction in four cities in Central America and two — South America.