Airport reviews

Quote: Pacomartin

Huge numbers of the Mexican airlines have gone bankrupt in the last few decades.

Partly that's to be expected from startups in a very marginal business.

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Mexicana was the oldest and largest airline in Mexico, carrying more than half the air passengers.

That was classic mismanagement. BTW. Click and Link were part of Mexicana and went down with it.

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As executive bus service can cost about the same as low cost air service, domestic air trips zoomed from 20 million in 1992, to 36 million in 2008.

The other thing si that Aeromexico and Mexicana were broken up. For a while they were essentially the same company, managed by a government-owned holding company called Cintra. High prices and abd service followed. It got so bad at one point that it was cheaper to fly to Houston or Phoenix than to Guadalajara or Monterrey.

Interjet announces new flight to Miami is proudly proclaimed on the Press release site of Interjet. Of course they began service 18 months ago. I have noticed a tendency in Mexico to be slow in updating their websites.

Quote: Nareed

Common sense would indicate direct fligths between popular vacation spots would be rare indeed. Except when the vacation spot is also a major population and commerce or political center (NYC, Paris, London, etc).

Mexicana had a Mex City-Vegas flight with a stop in Cabo. But that's long gone.

I flew Mexicana regularly to Cancun with a plane change in Mexico City. I was very happy with Mexicanna but I sure hated that layover in Mexico City.

Quote: DRich

I flew Mexicana regularly to Cancun with a plane change in Mexico City. I was very happy with Mexicana but I sure hated that layover in Mexico City.

There is an overnight nonstop on Volaris from Tijuana to Cancun (2000 miles) for under $440 round trip. Your hotel room may not be ready for 6 hours, but the hard core just check their bags and jump in the ocean or hotel pool and consider it free sunbathing time.

01:45 AM 08:25 AM (4:45)
08:25 PM 11:01 PM (4:36)

Once the bridge is completed over the wall to the Tijuana airport, they are hoping to lure more Californians to the airport. Already over half their passengers come from the USA, but they are more reliant on Mexican Americans who are trying to get home. The walkway will take away the need to make the regular border crossing and take a taxi. More flights to leisure destinations should open up.

There are 3 million people in San Diego county and some people from Orange County will drive to the border if there are better bargains than going to LAX. San Diego airport has nonstops to Tokyo and London, but TIJ may further develop the flight to Shanghai, and even introduce new Asian destinations, or possibly Paris and Madrid.

1. Volaris and Airbus finalize largest aircraft order in Mexican history (44 Airbus) 12 Jan 2012
2. Interjet signs purchase agreement (40 A320neo) 13 Nov 2012
3. VivaAerobus signs purchase agreement (52 A320-family aircraft); largest Airbus order in Latam 22 Oct 2013
4. Grupo Aeromexico Finalizes Order For Boeing 737-8 MAX And 737-9 MAX Aircraft - The contract was signed for the purchase of up to (90 aircraft). 6 Nov 2012

NOTE: The Boeing 737-300 flown by Magnicharter and Vivaaerobus is an old jet, but Southwest still is flying more than 120 of them. Southwest is not going to completely retire them until the year 2020. But most airlines have retired them because of fuel efficiency.

Here are the final numbers from the Airbus website. Jets can be operated by an airline that ordered then delivered. Sometimes they are received from other airlines
order-deliver-operate (as of July 2014)
11-11-19 VOLARIS A319 (to be retired in three years
63-19-29 VOLARIS A320
60-20-41 INTERJET A320
52-00-04 VIVAAEROBUS A320

So we are talking about 117 new single aisle jets with just these three airlines. With another 90 being ordered by AeroMexico and only 25 being retired, then added to the rather large fleet of up to eighteen 787 you are talking about a growth rate that exceeds that of the USA in the 1980's and early 1990's.

I expect as per your chart that not all the planes on order will be delivered, much less used.

BTW, I thought most planes these days are leased rather than bought. When Mexicana went under, it turned out they owned less than a dozen planes.

Quote: Nareed

I expect as per your chart that not all the planes on order will be delivered, much less used.

BTW, I thought most planes these days are leased rather than bought. When Mexicana went under, it turned out they owned less than a dozen planes.

I believe you are correct. I am not sure what Airbus means when they list an airline as having ordered the plane. Perhaps there is a pre-existing lease arrangement. As I understand it Emirates has 12 year leases on the A380's. Emirates was the second airline to receive the A380 and commenced services between Dubai and New York in August 2008. So the earliest jets have been flying for 6 years. Since that model jet is so dependent on Emirates, there is a justifiable fear that they won't renew their lease, and flood the market.

I wonder if Aeromexico is going to try and fly all 18 widebody 787's out of Mexico City. Given the number of feeder routes to support that many widebodies, they will almost have to take over the Mexican airline portion of AICM. Perhaps they are going to base some European flights out of Cancun, Guadalajara, Tijuana, or Monterrey.

Quote: Pacomartin

I wonder if Aeromexico is going to try and fly all 18 widebody 787's out of Mexico City. Given the number of feeder lines to support that many widebodies, they will almost have to take over the Mexican airline portion of AICM.

Assuming you mean Mexicana's portion, I don't think so. Not in Mex City's airport. See, Aeroméxico is the 800 lb gorilla in Terminal 2. I don't see them taking up gates in Terminal 1, where Mexicana used to operate. Other ariports are different.

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Perhaps they are going to base some European flights out of Cancun, Guadalajara, Tijuana, or Monterrey.

No clue what the demand for intercontinental fligths is from these cities. Consider, too, that Guadalajara and Monterrey are less than an hour away from Mex City, so making that connection for a 12+ hour flight is very reasonable. from Monterrey, too, Houston is even closer and offers more choices for furhter travel to Europe or Asia.

Quote: Nareed

Assuming you mean Mexicana's portion, I don't think so. Not in Mex City's airport. See, Aeroméxico is the 800 lb gorilla in Terminal 2. I don't see them taking up gates in Terminal 1, where Mexicana used to operate. Other ariports are different.

Then they will have to expand outside of Mexico City. They seem to have very few flights from other cities in this map (Feb 2013)

Quote: Nareed

No clue what the demand for intercontinental fligths is from these cities. Consider, too, that Guadalajara and Monterrey are less than an hour away from Mex City, so making that connection for a 12+ hour flight is very reasonable. from Monterrey, too, Houston is even closer and offers more choices for furhter travel to Europe or Asia.

These are the four busiest european cities at Cancun presently. You can see a lot of charter companies

UK, London 376,575 British Airways, Monarch Airlines, Thomas Cook Airlines, Thomson Airways, Virgin Atlantic Airways
Spain, Madrid 228,154 Air Europa, Air Pullmantur, Evelop! Air
UK, Manchester 193,723 Monarch Airlines, Thomas Cook UK, Thomson Airways
Russia, Moscow (Sheremetyevo and Vnukovo airports.) 117,335 Aeroflot, Transaero Airlines

It's often efficient to put all your inter-continental flights out of one airport. Then the feeder routes can do multiple duty. You could fly from Leon to Mexico City to get on a plane for Madrid, Paris, London, Rio, Sao Paulo, Lima, Santiago, Buenos Aires, Tokyo or Shanghai on widebodies.


Most of the domestic routes on American, United, or Delta are designed to feed the inter-continental flights. Obviously some passengers have frequent flier miles and are only interested in the domestic portions, but for the most part they leave the strictly domestic passengers to Southwest, Jet Blue, Spirit, Alaska or other Low Cost Carriers.

I flew to Carmen again today. Again I flew Interjet one way and Aeromexico the other way. The comparison is mostly on Interjet's favor.

The legroom on Interjet's one model A-320 is HUGE. I picked a seat on an exit row for the Aeromexico flight, and the legroom, I swear, was better on Interjet.

The snack service is about the same. Both serve one drink and a snack only. But on Interjet you get a full can of soda, if you order soda. On Aeromexico you get a small cup with soda served from a can, but not the whole can (boo!). The morning snack on Interjet is a small pack of cookies or cereal bars, with three varieties to choose from. In the afternoon and evening you get a small bag of munchies, again with three varieties. I forget what Aeromexico hands out in the morning. In the afternoon and evening you get a tiny bag of peanuts, no choices.

This is a small, a very small, thing. But considering Aeromexico charges about 1/3 to 1/2 more, it makes them look chintzy.

The legroom's a bigger deal. I just hope Interjet can keep on providing it.