News From The Americas

Richard Maslen May 25, 2011

AEROMEXICO EXPANDS ITS NETWORK FROM MEXICO CITY

AeroMexico is to introduce two new routes from its Mexico City base during the coming months; one domestic and one international. The SkyTeam alliance member is to offer a daily link to Huatulco from June 15 and a daily service to Panama City from September 15. Huatulco, centered on the town of La Crucecita, is a tourist development located on the Pacific coast in the state of Oaxaca. It is already served from the Mexican capital by Aeromar and Interjet Airlines on a twice weekly basis and by VivaAerobus with a daily schedule. An estimated 145,000 O&D passengers travelled on the route, a link that had previously been flown by Mexicana Airlines prior to its demise last year. AeroMexico plans to utilise a McDonnell Douglas MD-87 on the service. Meanwhile, Panama City is a market already served by local carrier COPA Airlines with up to three flights per day. AeroMexico has previously served the route, carrying around 5,000 O&D passengers in the past year, accounting for a seven per cent share of the estimated 73,000 travellers. COPA, with its multiple daily frequencies dominates the route, but there is certainly scope for additional competition as Mexicana carried around 16,000 passengers between the two cities from April 2010 until its demise in August.

DELTA AIR LINES TO ADD RALEIGH – BALTIMORE LINK

US carrier Delta Air Lines is to expand its domestic activities with a new three times daily service between Raleigh and Baltimore. The flight will be introduced from September 7 and will be operated using a Bombardier CRJ200 of regional partner Delta Connection. This will place the US major in direct competition with Southwest Airlines, which currently operates more than 45 flights per week between the two destinations, offering more than 6,000 seats in each direction. An estimated 186,000 O&D passengers travelled on the route in the past year, with passengers paying an average fare of $94 each way. Delta currently serves 17 domestic markets from Raleigh and seven from Baltimore and will mainly target point-to-point traffic on the route, although its fares will likely be much higher than its low-cost competitor as it aims its product at higher yield travellers.

CARIBBEAN AIRLINES LAUNCHES PORT OF SPAIN – KINGSTON SERVICE

Caribbean Airlines has inaugurated flights between Port of Spain and Kingston, the only current non-stop link between the two Caribbean destinations. The airline is offering a twice weekly service using a Boeing 737-800, which adds to the existing nine weekly flights which it operates with an intermediate stop en route. An estimated 29,000 O&D passengers travelled between Port of Spain and Kingston in the last year, a 6.6 per cent rise over the previous 12 month period, although Caribbean Airlines’ yield on the route has slightly weakened. The airline has served this market linking Trinidad & Tobago with Jamaica since 2007.

TAM AIRLINES ADDS SECOND DAILY FLIGHT TO ORLANDO

Brazilian carrier TAM Airlines is to offer a second daily flight between São Paulo and Orlando for a four week period this summer. The additional rotation will operate between July 5 and August 1 and like the existing flight will be operated by an Airbus A330-200. TAM is the only operator between the two cities and carried an estimated 64,000 O&D passengers in the past year. This represents just 21 per cent of the total market of around 300,000, with American Airlines dominating the traffic via its Miami International base. Meanwhile, away from the North American market, TAM has also initiated a codeshare partnership with Spanair on flights between Brazil and Spain and for domestic flights from Madrid to five Spanish cities. This came into force on May 12 and covers TAM’s link between Madrid and São Paulo and Spanair’s flights from the Spanish capital to Barcelona, Bilbao, Malaga, Tenerife-Norte and Santiago de Compostela.