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 Travel & Outdoors | June 2005 
Budget Airlines Ready To Take Off
 Wire services
Mexicans will soon be getting the chance to book flights on low-cost carriers that are out to capture 30 percent of the country's market for domestic air travel.
The nation's civil aviation agency, the DGAC, has received proposals from a dozen firms seeking to offer service on short routes at fares 20 percent lower than those charged by established airlines for comparable distances.
Official statistics show that more than 2 million people travel by ground along the prospective routes annually, and aviation entrepreneurs are confident they can coax more than 600,000 of them out of their cars with reliable, inexpensive air service.
The DGAC has so far approved the plans of two new carriers, Click and Vuela, and is currently reviewing prospectuses from three more.
Mexican-owned Click is set to begin flying in July, while Vuela, which is backed by both domestic and Canadian capital, plans to launch its service in January 2006.
DGAC chief Gilberto López Meyer said two other locally owned airlines, Aerolineas Mesoamericanas and Aerolineas ABC, have sought approval to start operations next year in Mexico's Caribbean coastal region.
Budget carriers, notably U.S.-based Southwest, England's easyJet and Ryanair of Ireland, have enjoyed great success in other parts of the world, but earlier attempts to bring low-cost air travel to Mexico foundered in the 1990s amid a price war.
This time around, according to the DGAC, the new carriers do not plan a direct challenge to established airlines.
The newcomers are also said to be financially sound and to have fleets of fuel-efficient planes with extended cruising ranges and low maintenance costs.
DGAC officials are hopeful that, in addition to expanding the market for air travel, the budget carriers will revitalize little-used regional terminals and thereby relieve some of the pressure on Mexico City International, which handles 320,000 flights and 23 million passengers every year.
Authorities are offering lower-priced jet fuel and subsidies for taxes and fees to carriers willing to operate from airports such as Toluca and Cuernavaca, both 60 kilometers (37 miles) from the capital; Puebla, 125 kilometers (78 miles) away; and Queretaro, which is 210 kilometers (130 miles) from Mexico City.
The vice president of marketing for European aircraft manufacturer Airbus, Laurent Rouaud, said during a recent visit to Mexico that the country offers a "very promising" opportunity for low-cost carriers.
So far, the big airlines operating in Mexico have shown no interest in the market for budget air travel, seeing it as unprofitable. |
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