Mexican low-cost carrier Volaris plans to enter a codeshare agreement with Panamanian carrier Copa Airlines.
That is according to Volaris executives speaking during the company’s quarterly earnings call on 28 April, with executive vice-president Holger Blankenstein disclosing that Volaris would be “signing a new codeshare” with Copa on 29 April.
The commercial collaboration will “expand connectivity between Mexico and Latin America” through Copa’s hub in Panama City, connecting Copa’s network to more than 40 Mexican cities and offering Volaris customers greater access to Central and South America.
Blankenstein says the Mexican discounter’s existing operations in Central America will remain intact.
“Our Central American operation is focused very much on VFR [visiting friends and relatives] traffic between Central America and the US, which we will continue to service directly,” he says. ”The Copa relationship is built as a bilateral codeshare” focusing on Mexico, North America and South America.
In addition to its new relationship with Copa, Volaris has existing codeshare agreements with US discounter Frontier Airlines and Spain’s Iberia.
Executives said during the call that Volaris is experiencing dimished demand for its core VFR market, prompting the company to lower its full-year passenger capacity forecast.
Meanwhile, domestic leisure travel to Mexico’s beach destinations and southbound traffic from the USA is holding steady.
Volaris reports a loss of $51 million during the first quarter, compared with a $33 million profit during the first three months of 2024.
Revenue decreased year-on-year nearly 12%, to $645 million.
