Aeromexico has unveiled plans to increase frequencies on five US routes and resume services on two others.
The SkyTeam carrier announced today it will operate additional flights starting 6 December from Mexico City to Chicago O'Hare, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami and New York JFK. Each route will be operated with one additional daily flight except Las Vegas, which will receive four additional flights per week.
The carrier says it is also restarting daily service from Guadalajara to Ontario in California from 20 November. Aeromexico is also resuming seasonal service on the Mexico City-Denver route with three weekly flights from 15 December through April 2011.
The additional flights help fill the void left by Mexicana, which competed against Aeromexico on all these routes prior to suspending operations in August. Aeromexico first opened Denver as a new seasonal winter-only gateway in early 2009.
Mexican carriers are currently prohibited by the US FAA from launching new services to the US because Mexico falls under category 2 under the FAA's international aviation safety assessment (IASA) programme. But an FAA spokeswoman says Mexican carriers are allowed to adjust frequencies on routes they are already authorised to operate as long as their total US capacity does not increase.
She says the capacity cap is calculated as an annual figure and is determined based on the number of flights operated when Mexico was downgraded to category 2 at the end of July. Aeromexico will need to secure FAA approval to implement the schedule changes announced today but as long as the carrier still falls under the annual cap and sticks to existing routes - including routes which had been temporarily suspended - the changes will be approved.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
