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 Travel & Outdoors | January 2006 
Volaris to Fly in March, Orders Jets
 Patrick Harrington - El Universal
| | After one year Volaris plans to offer direct flights to the United States. |
Controladora Vuela Compania de Aviación SA, the startup airline owned in part by Mexican billionaires Carlos Slim and Emilio Azcárraga, will begin service March 13, said Chief Executive Enrique Beltranena.
The airline, which will operate under the commercial name Volaris, ordered 16 Airbus 319A series jets and has an option to order 40 more within the A320 family, Beltranena said at a news conference in Mexico City.
Volaris is seeking to capitalize from an expected boom in domestic air travel as the Mexican government sells its controlling stakes in the country´s two largest airlines and fares plummet. Domestic air travel may double in as few as three years as new discount airlines such as Interjet and Vuela attract as many as 20 million passengers, the country´s aviation chief said in December.
"The immense majority of our growth will come from people who previously didn´t fly," said Pedro Aspe, a former finance minister and investor in the carrier in Mexico City.
Volaris´s initial 16-plane order is worth about US$1 billion based on list prices. Including options, the entire order may be worth as much as US$3.4 billion if the airline takes delivery of all the planes.
During its first year of operation Volaris will fly between Toluca outside of Mexico City to Tijuana, Monterrey, Guadalajara and Cancún using the 144-passenger jets, Beltranena said. Ticket prices will start as low as 1,207 pesos (US$114), he said. After one year Volaris plans to offer direct flights to the United States, he said.
Volaris was founded by a private equity fund jointly controlled by Aspe and Discovery Fund Services. El Salvador´s Taca International Airlines will own a minority stake in Volaris and operate it. Slim, who controls América Móvil and Teléfonos de México SA, and Azcárraga, chairman of broadcaster Grupo Televisa SA, are also investors. |
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