Victors emerge in Mexico's budget airline wars
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2009/08/12/...
By Christine Delsol
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
With Mexican discount airline Volaris offering new flights from Oakland to Guadalajara and Toluca (31 miles west of the Mexico City) since last month,
and to Tijuana beginning Aug. 28, Bay Area travelers finally have direct access to low-cost flights to Mexico. It's a bright spot in a shake-out year
for the no-frills airlines that sprung to life after the government privatized its two national airlines, Mexicana and Aeromexico.
When we reported on Mexico's budget airlines a little over a year ago, when U.S. airlines were disappearing faster than legroom in coach, no fewer
than nine new and reconstituted airlines offered flights to more than 50 Mexican cities. Most required getting to a Mexican hub city, some of their
Web sites were in Spanish only, and the sheer number of alternatives made determining which airlines offered the best routes and fares an online
odyssey of Homeric proportions. But the savings were often worth the effort, especially if your destination was not one of the big resort areas.
And then there were four
After a year of fuel cost hikes, a foundering worldwide economy and headlines about drug-related violence, just four of the nine Mexican budget
carriers we covered in May 2008 are still flying. Aerocalifornia was grounded in July 2008 because of unpaid air-traffic-control fees. In November,
financially strapped Alma suspended operations. A week later, Avolar was grounded for failing to pay air-rights fees; it had already cut operations
back from 891 departures in Sept. 2007 to 162 in September 2008.
Aladia stopped flying in February of this year and posted a notice on its Web site saying it is restructuring its debt and expects to resume
operations at some indefinite time. Most recently, Aviacsa — grounded in June after a safety inspection but allowed to return to the air after a court
overturned the suspension — was grounded again last month because of unpaid fees.
Except for Aladia, which flew to only six cities, each of those carriers served 20 to 30 often overlapping destinations. A representative of Grupo
Aeroportuario del Pacifico, which operates 12 airports throughout Mexico's Pacific region, predicted that other airlines would gradually add routes or
increase frequency to take up the slack.
For the most part, he was right. Interjet, whose hub is in Toluca, bought Aerocalifornia's Mexico City slots. Last year, Avolar was the only airline
serving Durango, Uruapan or Zacatecas, but those cities now have flights from Interjet, Volaris and Click Mexicana, respectively. Alma was the only
way to fly to Ciudad Obregon (Sonora), but Interjet and Viva Aerobus have added it to their rosters.
More U.S. flights
While the pared-down array of options might not be good news for Mexico's economy, U.S. travelers stand to benefit. For starters, four instead of nine
carriers serving essentially the same destinations means finding the right route at a low fare requires less time with your browser. And more of those
flights are available out of U.S. airports now. Only one of the defunct airlines flew across the border — Aviacsa, which flew between Las Vegas and
Monterrey. Viva Aerobus, which already offered flights out of Austin, Texas, has now taken Aviacsa's place in Las Vegas.
But it's Volaris, which operated only within Mexico last year, that wins our affection for being the first to fly out of the Bay Area. Now moving more
passengers than any Mexican airline except Mexicana and Aeromexico, Volaris made its first U.S. foray June 30, when it began flying daily from Los
Angeles to Toluca and twice a day to Guadalajara. In mid-July, it began daily flights from Oakland to Toluca and to Guadalajara.
Beginning Aug. 28, Volaris will add daily flights between Oakland and Tijuana. Forget for the moment that Tijuana is currently a destination non grata
— its airport is a hub with connections to Acapulco, Morelia, Los Cabos, Guadalajara, Uruapan, Oaxaca and Culiacan. And that's just on Volaris;
Interjet and Viva Aerobus also offer connecting flights out of Tijuana. Volaris' code-share agreement with Southwest Airlines, scheduled to take
effect next spring, will allow passengers to book flights on either airline's Web site.
Those left standing
Here's an update on the victors (so far) in Mexico's discount-airline wars. For details on some of the lesser-known destinations, see the Mexico Mix
column from March 4, 2009.
Viva Aerobus (22 destinations)
* Hub: Monterrey (General Mariano Escobedo International Airport)
* Destinations: Acapulco, Cancún, Chihuahua, Ciudad Juárez, Ciudad Obregon, Culiacan, Guadalajara, Hermosillo, Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo, La Paz,
León/Bajío, Los Cabos, Los Mochis, Mazatlán, Mérida, Monterrey, Morélia, Oaxaca, Puerto Vallarta, Tijuana, Veracruz, Villahermosa.
* Noted: Founded in 2006; family that founded Europe's Ryanair is part owner. Flies out of Las Vegas and Austin, Texas. Has added three
destinations while dropping four (Cozumel, Cuernavaca, Huatulco, Quèretaro).
Volaris (22 destinations)
* Hub: Toluca (Lic. Adolfo López Mateos International Airport)
* Destinations: Acapulco, Aguascalientes, Cancún, Chihuahua, Culiacan, Guadalajara, Hermosillo, La Paz, León/Bajío, Los Cabos, Mazatlán, Mérida,
Mexicali, Monterrey, Morelia, Oaxaca, Puebla, Puerto Vallarta, Tapachula, Toluca, Tijuana, Uruapan.
* Noted: Founded in 2005; co-owned by El Salvador's Grupo TACA. Flies out of Los Angeles and Oakland airports to Toluca, Guadalajara and Tijuana.
Has added four destinations and has discontinued three (Ciudad Juárez, Reynosa and Villahermosa).
Interjet (21 destinations)
* Hub: Toluca (Lic. Adolfo López Mateos International Airport)
* Destinations: Acapulco, Cancún, Chihuahua, Ciudad del Carmen, Ciudad Juárez, Ciudad Obregon, Culiacan, Durango, Guadalajara, Hermosillo,
Huatulco, Ixtapa-Zijuatanejo, Los Cabos, Los Mochis, Monterrey, Puerto Vallarta, Tampico, Toluca, Tijuana, Tuxtla Gutierrez
* Noted: Founded in 2005; bought Aerocalifornia's Mexico City air rights and began flying out of the capital in August 2008. Web site is in
Spanish only; does not serve U.S. airports. Added nine destinations in the past year while discontinuing one (to Mérida).
Click Mexicana (28 destinations)
* Hub: Mexico City (Benito Juárez International Airport )
* Destinations: Acapulco, Aguascalientes, Chetumal, Ciudad del Carmen, Colima, Cozumel, Culiacan, Guadalajara, Huatulco, Ixtapa-Zijuatanejo,
León/Bajío, Los Cabos, Manzanillo, Mérida, Mexicali, Mexico City, Minatitlan, Nuevo Laredo, Oaxaca, Puerto Escondido, Reynosa, San Luis Potosí,
Tampico, Torreon, Tuxtla Gutierrez, Veracruz, Villahermosa, Zacatecas.
* Noted: Not a true discount airline but a low-fare subsidiary that Mexicana started in 2005 after taking over Aerocaribe Airlines. It doesn't
have its own Web site and primarily serves Mexicana customers flying to regional destinations. It is included because it operates the only available
flights to numerous destinations, including some once served by the grounded airlines. No U.S. airports. Has added six destinations and dropped three
(Aguascalientes, Puerto Vallarta, Saltillo).
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