Low-cost Volaris plans to take off in America next year
Volaris, a low cost carrier airline based in Toluca, Mexico, is expecting to break into the US market by the fourth quarter of 2009.
ATW Online is reporting that CEO Enrique Beltranena said that he will be entering 10 to 12 markets within the next three to five years. While he won’t say what the destinations will be, “It is going to be paired to the most dense airports that Southwest [Airlines] is utilizing, and obviously the ones with wide connectivity for both the U.S. and Mexicans in the region…They do have more than 87 city-pairs in the U.S. and we’ll be joining them where it makes more sense.”
Volaris is a codeshare partner with Southwest Airlines.
Both Southwest and Volaris plan to reveal more details of their bilateral agreement in 2010. Beltrana isn’t sure whether Southwest plans on starting Mexico flights, but he did confirm that Volaris will have “exclusivity on its routes.”
Southwest Airlines Pilots Association President Carl Kuwitzky said his pilots can’t support a codeshare with Volaris because “SWA is risking brand dilution by association with an unknown carrier.”
Beltranena said that the alliance is important because he feels that Southwest will also benefit from Volaris traffic in the US. He also said that, for all he knows, his pilots may be saying the same thing as Southwest’s pilots.
Volaris is an airline that was formed by investment firm Discovery Americas I and TACA, a consortium of five airlines. It started flying in 2006 with flights from Toluca, Mexico to Tijuana, Mexico. They currently operate 19 A319-100s and two A320-200s on 39 routes to 23 Mexican cities.
You may also be interested in these articles
Comments
Please share your thoughts...