A whole range of new opportunities to fly to Mexico City is about to open up, and a good number of them will be on discount airlines.
Under a Department of Transportation proposal, almost certain to be finalized, 24 ‘slot pairs’ that Delta and Aeromexico are required to give up as part of their deal for a joint-venture operation will be divided among second-tier U.S. carriers and Mexican discounters.
The airlines are required to give up the slots to avoid their combined size from over-dominating a single airport; at Mexico City, the combo would still control half the flights. The slots will change hands starting this year and finishing next.
Six of the slot pairs, each good for a landing and a takeoff, will go to JetBlue; 4 each to Alaska and Southwest, and the rest to Mexico’s Volaris, Interjet and VivaAerobus. The Mexican discounters will also get the 6 slot pairs that Delta and Aeromexico have to give up at JFK.
Here are the route plans for the airlines:
- Alaska 2 flights a day to Los Angeles, 1 each to San Diego and San Francisco
- JetBlue 2 a day each to Fort Lauderdale, Los Angeles and Orlando
- Southwest 2 flights to Houston Hobby, 1 each to Los Angeles and Fort Lauderdale
- VivaAerobus 2 a day to JFK, 1 to Las Vegas
- Volaris 1 a day to Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, JFK, Oakland, San Antonio, Washington Dulles; 4 a week to San Jose and 3 a week to Ontario, CA
- Interjet 1 a day to JFK
Photo: Ovedc/Wikimedia
