Mexico’s president would like to begin allowing non-Mexican carriers to fly domestic routes within the country.<\/p>\n
The announcement, made earlier this week by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, comes as Mexico’s airline industry has grown more concentrated following the collapse of Interjet during the pandemic.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Related: Aeromexico emerges from Chapter 11<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Currently, just three airlines — Aeromexico, Volaris and Viva Aerobus — control 97% of the Mexican domestic market, according to Dohop, which develops technology platforms that enable airline interconnectivity.<\/p>\n Like in the U.S., Mexico doesn’t allow foreign airlines to fly point-to-point domestic routes. But opening domestic city pairs to airlines from regions such as the U.S. and Europe could boost competition.<\/p>\n Dohop commercial director Sarah Hanan said such a change could appeal to U.S. low-cost carriers.<\/p>\n “We would expect the likes of Spirit, JetBlue and Southwest to further develop their footprint in Mexico and that this extra capacity would create more connectivity opportunities to\/from Mexico by connecting secondary cities in Mexico to the rest of the world — again good news for Mexican travelers, those wishing to visit Mexico and indeed Mexico’s quite mature tourism economy,” she said.<\/p>\n