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 Travel & Outdoors | January 2007 
Volaris Adds 8 Cities to Roster
 El Universal
| | The budget carrier will now boast a total of 14 destinations. |
Volaris, the Mexican airline backed by billionaires Carlos Slim and Emilio Azcarraga, will more than double the number cities it serves by April.
The carrier will add eight cities including Mérida and San José del Cabo in March for a total of 14 destinations, the airline said today in a statement. Volaris said it also will take delivery of eight previously ordered Airbus SAS A319 jets by October, doubling its fleet, and begin renting Apple Inc. iPod music players to passengers.
New routes will also include Aguascalientes, León, Villahermosa, Morelia, Culiacán and Mexicali.
Volaris´s expansion will help it triple sales to US$300 million this year, making it Mexico´s second- or third-biggest carrier by domestic passenger traffic, Chairman Pedro Aspe said. Volaris began operations last year by serving six cities from a hub in Toluca, 40 miles outside Mexico City.
"Our business plan always anticipated a ton of competition," Aspe said at a news conference in Mexico City. "The toughest competition for us is the bus lines," especially on trips of less than seven hours, he said.
Volaris has promoted flights at costs below those of the country´s two largest airlines, Aeromexico and Mexicana.
Aspe said the airline won´t begin international flights this year, as it had forecast in early 2006. "We´re focused on domestic flights this year and next," said Aspe, a former finance secretary.
APPLE iPODS
Volaris said its iPod rental program would be the first for an airline. The units will become available by Feb. 8 on flights from Toluca to Tijuana and Cancun for a fee of 50 pesos (US$4.51), the company said.
The iPods will come loaded with entertainment provided by Azcarraga´s Grupo Televisa SA, including television programs, movies and podcasts.
Planes on the iPod-served routes won´t have traditional in- flight entertainment systems, Chief Executive Officer Enrique J. Beltranena said in an interview. The iPods could save much of the estimated US$800,000 cost of wiring a plane for movies and audio, Beltranena said.
Televisa, Carlos Slim´s bank Grupo Financiero Inbursa, a private equity fund created by Aspe´s Protego Advisors and Connecticut-based Discovery Capital, and the El Salvador-based airline TACA each own one quarter of Volaris. |
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