Six months in the past, the COVID-19 pandemic arrived with a full strike in Latin America, paralyzing the economies and the aviation business. Simply now, some international locations are opening their borders, letting their airways fly once more. On this context, Mexico appears to be main the aviation restoration within the area. Let’s examine additional.
The Mexican aviation business is recovering quicker than the remainder of Latin America. Photograph: Daniel Martínez Garbuno/Easy Flying.No measures, simpler restoration
The world over, Mexico was one of many few international locations that by no means imposed restrictions on journey. Over the last six months, each airline and passenger on the earth that needed to return to Mexico might do it.
The identical occurred for home journey, as Mexican airways by no means needed to floor their operations because of Authorities measures. They did cut back their flights and parked plane, however that’s as a result of the demand fell off a cliff. The dearth of restrictions allowed Mexican carriers to relaunch their flights simpler.
In the meantime, different Latin American international locations had completely different approaches. For instance, Brazil forbade entrance to foreigners till June. Since then, Brazil has joined Mexico with no restrictions by any means, nevertheless it nonetheless hasn’t had the restoration it could want.
Like Colombia, Bolivia, and Peru, different international locations have been extra restrictive, permitting simply prior to now few weeks the resumption of home connectivity. And there are even worst instances like Argentina, which hasn’t settled a date to allow airways to function once more.
Nonetheless, that’s simply part of the equation. Mexico has had one other couple of benefits towards the remainder of Latin America.
Regardless of the challenges, like Interjet’s arrears, low-cost carriers in Mexico are thriving. Photograph: Daniel Martínez Garbuno/Easy FlyingThe low-cost energy
We’ve been saying this for weeks now: low-cost carriers are poised to get better first in Latin America. In Mexico, 70% of the market share belongs to low-cost airways. As Skyscanner just lately mentioned,
“While no airline has been immune to the impact that COVID-19 has had on the travel sector, low-cost carriers have arguably been better insulated compared to some of their full-service carrier competitors.”
In Mexico, two of the three low-cost airways, Volaris and Viva Aerobus, have had a V-shaped restoration. In the meantime, the third, Interjet, is in decline. In accordance with OAG, by September, Mexico was nonetheless 30% under the variety of market seats supplied in 2019. Regardless of nonetheless being down, that’s an excellent quantity.
As an illustration, Volaris is working at 75% capability proper now. In August, it surpassed the million passenger barrier for the primary time since March. Additionally, in that month, Viva Aerobus had extra passengers than Grupo Aeromexico, for the primary time in its historical past.
Additionally, Volaris is pushing a marketing campaign to carry conventional bus vacationers into their planes. The low-cost service praises the benefit of a two or three-hour flight versus a six-hour bus experience. And it’s working for them.
In the meantime, Grupo Aeromexico is beneath its Chapter 11 reorganization. Whereas the historic service is shrinking, certainly not has misplaced its presence within the Mexican market. And now that different Latin American international locations are reopening their airspaces, Aeromexico can enhance its demand. It is going to guess on the connectivity to locations like Colombia, Peru, and Brazil. However there’s one vacation spot that has been the benchmark of Mexican aviation restoration: the US.
Mexico is turning into the primary worldwide marketplace for US vacationers in the intervening time. Photograph: Airways For America.The US-Mexico market
In accordance with Airways for America, Mexico is at the moment the clear chief for the US worldwide air journey. By August 2020, the US-Mexico market had 898,400 passengers, whereas the second place, the Dominican Republic, had 245,800.
Many US residents that need to journey overseas are selecting Mexico as their vacation spot. That’s why airways like JetBlue are capitalizing on new routes. Jap Airways can be launching new routes to the nation.
Mexican carriers are additionally putting their belief within the transborder market. As an illustration, Viva Aerobus is at the moment working 11 routes to the US from Mexico Metropolis, Monterrey, and Guadalajara.
Whereas the restoration is way from over, and Mexico nonetheless has to face the worst financial downturn in its historical past, the numbers level to an optimistic state of affairs within the nation.
What do you consider Mexico’s restoration? Tell us within the feedback.
