VIA's Jose Mulet looks back on 33 years in the aviation industry

Published: Dec. 8, 2021, 1 p.m.

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HARLINGEN, Texas - Any idea what the busiest domestic airline route is in North America?

LA to New York? No. That is the second busiest. Chicago to New York? No. San Francisco to Los Angeles? No. It is, in fact, Cancun to Mexico City. The third busiest is Mexico City to Monterrey.\\xa0

The Rio Grande Guardian learned these facts when interviewing Jos\\xe9 Mulet, director of air service, business development, and public relations for Valley International Airport (VIA) in Harlingen.\\xa0

Mulet appears to have an encyclopedic knowledge of airline routes and how popular they are. The busiest domestic airline route in the world, he said, is Jeju to Seoul. Another busy domestic route is Beijing to Shanghai. So are Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh, and Melbourne to Sydney.\\xa0

Mulet said there are ten Airbus 380 flights a day between London Heathrow and, Dubai.\\xa0

Rio Grande Valley residents may not be able to pick Mulet\\u2019s brain on airline routes for much longer, however. After 33 years in the aviation industry the airport executive is slated to retire at the end of February, 2022. Likely as not we will then find him on a cruise. There are many places he wants to visit. He plans to do a two-week cruise from Santiago to Buenos Aires and visit New Zealand to see the fjords.

A former high school teacher, Mulet started out in the airline industry in 1978 just as deregulation was getting underway. \\u201cAirlines could fly anywhere they wanted,\\u201d he recalled. \\u201cSo, there was a boom in the airline industry.\\u201d

Editor's Note: For the full story go to the Rio Grande Guardian website.\\xa0

To read the new stories and watch the news videos of the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service go to www.riograndeguardian.com.

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