Mexicana

Airbus Wins Order From Mexico's Volaris For 44 A320 Aircraft. There was only 28 Airbus A319/320/330 jets that Mexicana had in it's fleet when it went bankrupt 15 months ago.

Volaris seems to be planning to become the biggest airline in Mexico (by passengers carried).

Perhaps Aeromexico will become primarily an international airline. They are planning to buy 8 new Boeing 787's to replace their 6 Boeing 767's.

I don't see how Mexicana will find a place.

Quote: pacomartin

Volaris seems to be planning to become the biggest airline in Mexico (by passengers carried).

Good for them. I only wish they'd operate more flights from Toluca.

Quote:

I don't see how Mexicana will find a place.

Again, because Volaris and Viva are operating from Mexicana's slots and gates. Interjet acquired theirs from the defunct Aerocalifornia, so it's safe in Terminal 1.

However, the latest attempt to purchase and rescue Mexicana fell through. And I heard Volaris has gone to court to demand the right to acquire Mexicana's slots and gates. If it does, then Mexicana is through.

Quote: Nareed

And I heard Volaris has gone to court to demand the right to acquire Mexicana's slots and gates. If it does, then Mexicana is through.

Mexico has rapidly increased their narrow body jet fleet to 132 jets, so they have already replaced Mexicana capacity.
42 Aeromexico (narrow body full size jets only) Boeing 737 - 18 US destinations
33 Volaris - Airbus 319/320 - 7 US destinations
31 Interjet - Airbus 320 - 1 US destinations
17 Vivaerobus - Boeing 737 - 7 US destinations
09 Magnicharter - Boeing 737 - zero US destinations

Maybe with American Airlines in bankruptcy, the Mexican airlines will be able to get some of the routes to American cities.

Interjet came to San Antonio saying they had applied to begin a San Antonio-Toluca-Guadalajara route on Dec. 6 operating three days a week, one day after AirTran's annoucement.

"Altogether, that amounts to thousands of additional seats arriving from and departing to Mexico each week. San Antonio is Interjet's first U.S. destination. AirTran is positioning San Antonio as one of two airports, along with Orange County, to funnel passengers into and out of Mexico, making San Antonio a kind of a hub."

“San Antonio now has a premiere position into and out of Mexico,” Mayor Julian Castro said this week. “We've never had that before.”

Article

Quote: allenwalker

Interjet came to San Antonio saying they had applied to begin a San Antonio-Toluca-Guadalajara route on Dec. 6 operating three days a week, one day after AirTran's announcement.

From 1991 to 2010 Mexican Airlines have had virtually no increase in the number of passengers between Mexico and the United States. Most start up airlines in Mexico fail. And with Mexicana going bankrupt in August 2010, they lose the airline which controlled about half of the Mexican share of the air traffic going to USA.

In the same years 1991 to 2010, US airlines have tripled the number of passengers that they carry between the countries. You now have 21 different American airline companies with some share of this profitable pie. American, Continental, USAir, and Delta all had a larger share than Aeromexico last year.

In fairness it would be nice to see the Mexican airlines climb back up to 50% of the pie. That would strengthen their financial position so that they can improve domestic routes. Even if US airlines dominate the traffic to the resort cities, it would be nice if Mexican airlines controlled more of the traffic to urban areas. Most of these passengers are Mexicans or Mexican-Americans anyway.

Having lived in Mexico, I understand the frustration with the lack of affordable domestic air transport. You either pay an extortionate air fare, or you are faced with mind numbing 24 hour bus rides.


One third of the domestic air travel in 2010 was on just 6 routes, with 5 of them from Mexico City.

1	MÉXICO	CANCÚN	799 miles	1,974,000 psgrs	8.1%	8.1%
2	MÉXICO	MONTERREY	442	1,837	7.5%	15.6%
3	MÉXICO	GUADALAJARA	284	1,628	6.6%	22.2%
4	TIJUANA	GUADALAJARA	1,180	902	3.7%	25.9%
5	MÉXICO	TIJUANA	1,430	825	3.4%	29.3%
6	MÉXICO	MÉRIDA	620	756	3.1%	32.3%

We flew out of the Zacatecas airport, and they only had one airline, Mexicana. Now that Mexicana is bankrupt, they have flights to five cities on two airlines. The state has 1.5 million people, and it take forever to go somewhere by bus. You can't develop a modern economy without better air service.
Aeroméxico Connect-Mexico City: Volaris - Chicago-Midway, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Tijuana


One fourth of the International traffic is on the following 10 routes
LOS ÁNGELES GUADALAJARA
LOS ÁNGELES MÉXICO
HOUSTON CANCÚN
HOUSTON MÉXICO
NUEVA YORK CANCÚN
NUEVA YORK MÉXICO
MIAMI MÉXICO
DALLAS CANCÚN
ATLANTA CANCÚN
MÉXICO MADRID

Mexican airlines are expanding their presence in the USA.

Viva Aerobus is up to 6 cities in the USA (including Vegas)
Volaris is flying to 7 cities in the USA (including Vegas)
Aeromexico is flying to 15 cities in the USA (including Vegas)
Interjet to 2 (San Antonio & Miami)

Aeromexico has been flying to the US for a very long time now. Viva, Volaris and Interjet are new airlines.

I thought, BTW, you were going to bring up the latest attempt to rescue Mexicana. It would be funny if it weren't so sad. Every few months some group says "We'll do it!" Then there's a flurry in the media about it. then the funds fail to materialize. It's like mirages chasing something real.

Quote: Nareed

Aeromexico has been flying to the US for a very long time now. Viva, Volaris and Interjet are new airlines.

I included Aeromexico just for completeness. It would be nice if the Mexican airlines could take back at least half of the US/Mexican air traffic.
Aeromexico seems to have abandoned San Diego.

	Aeromexico	Aerobus	Volaris	Interjet
BROWNSVILLE	X
CHICAGO	X	X	X
DENVER	X
FRESNO	X		X
HOUSTON	X	X
LAS VEGAS	X	X
LOS ANGELES	X		X
MIAMI	X	X		X
NEW YORK	X
ONTARIO	X
ORLANDO	X	X
SACRAMENTO	X
PHOENIX	X
SAN ANTONIO	X	X		X
SAN DIEGO			X
SAN FRANCISCO	X		X
SAN JOSE			X

Ontario? Really? Why?

As to San Diego, I assume flying to Tijuana is cheaper, and it's rigth across the border.

And as predicted, the latest flurry in the news for a "rescue" of Mexicana has come to naught.

According to news reports Friday, Mexicana's being taken over by an investment firm called, fi I heard right Med Atlaantica (sound like an insurance company, doesn't it?)

I don't know if this is good news or not, especially for me. According to the news, Mexicana will get back all its slots and routes in Mex City's airport. But it also plans to begin with 7 planes and a handful of routes, and build up to 45 planes and more routes over 12 months. So it would seem the removal of Volaris, Viva and part of Interjet would happen gradually (Interjet owns slots and routes bought from the deceased Aerocalifornia).

I've no idea how this will affect Voalris' operations, and I planned on flying to Vegas on Voalris. Oh, I suppose they will try to hang on to their slots anyway, and there will be battles in court for months yet. But the way I see it, both Volaris and Interjet can move back some flights to Toluca, and Viva might as well. Volaris will keep the Guadalajara-Vegas route anyway.

And then, too, Mexicana operated 100+ planes when it suspended operations. Meaning even if it does reach the 45 plane goal ina year, they'd still need about ahlf the slots they had previously. So maybe not much will change for a while.

Still I'm not buying a plane ticket until I know there will be a flight available in May. We'll see.