Aeromexico Set to Bring Competition to Mexico City – London Route

SkyTeam alliance member Aeromexico is set to introduce a new non-stop service between Mexico City and London Heathrow, bringing competition to a route that has been controlled by British Airways (BA) for many years. According to the latest update of its GDS inventory, Aeromexico will introduce a three times weekly service from December 14, 2012 using a Boeing 767-300ER. A formal announcement confirming the route was made on October 15, 2012 and further details and analysis appears in The HUB.

The GDS schedule shows that the flight 'AM007' will depart Mexico City on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday evenings at 22:25 and will arrive at London's main international gateway at 15:00 the following day. The return flight, 'AM008', departs London Heathrow at 17:25 on Monday, Thursdays and Saturdays and arrives back in the Mexican capital at 00:35 the following day. The carrier’s management is understood to be seeking the green light from UK authorities before formally announcing the route.

BA has held a monopoly on the Mexico City – London city pair for almost 20 years. It launched services between Mexico City’s Benito Juárez International Airport and London Heathrow in March 1993 using a Boeing 747-400 and although it switched services to London Gatwick in March 1997, it returned the flight to London Heathrow in April 1998, where it has continued to fly since. For almost this entire period BA has been the sole carrier flying between Mexico City and London, but between January 2009 and August 2010 Mexicana provided some competition, serving London Gatwick.

For Aeromexico this new UK link will add to its existing links to France and Spain. The Mexican carrier inaugurated flights to Madrid and Paris Orly in June 1991. The flights to the French capital only lasted a matter of months, but the Spanish link has continued. A link to Paris was resurrected in June 1996, but this time serving Charles de Gaulle, and this has been successfully operated alongside the Madrid connection. A service to Barcelona was also introduced in December 2007 but this was suspended in January 2012.

In the table below we highlight the estimated O&D demand between Mexico City and London Heathrow during the past six years. This market was in growth until 2008. However, the introduction of Mexicana’s route to London Gatwick in 2009 (generating around 18,000 O&D passengers) resulted in traffic falling by around a fifth at London Heathrow. However, growth returned in 2010 and demand reached its highest level last year. For the first half of this year estimated O&D demand was up 2.4 per cent on the same period in 2011, to 47,000 passengers.

AIR PASSENGER DEMAND BETWEEN MEXICO CITY AND LONDON HEATHROW (bi-directional O&D passengers)

Year

Estimated O&D Passengers

% Change in Traffic Demand

2006

80,429

(-8.0) %

2007

84,182

4.7 %

2008

90,963

8.1 %

2009

72,448

(-20.4) %

2010

82,084

13.3 %

2011

94,791

15.5 %