Mexicana and Aéromexico have each entered or expanded separate alliances with US airlines, signalling that they plan to continue competing against each other across the US-Mexico border. These pacts revive questions about the carriers' commitment to their joint Alas de America alliance with AeroPeru.
Aéromexico has expanded its codeshare with Delta and Mexicana has inked such an alliance with United Airlines. The Aéromexico-Delta pact raises the number of codeshare sectors from three to 10, including such key ones as Mexico City to New York and Los Angeles. Washington limited approval to 60 days, but Aéromexico was encouraged by how quickly Washington acted, says John Berthelot, assistant to Aéromexico's chairman. Aéromexico is confident enough about gaining renewal of these approvals to start sharing Delta's terminals at Los Angeles and New York.
Mexicana's new alliance with United would allow the carriers to compete head-to-head with Aéromexico-Delta between Los Angeles and Mexico and indirectly on many other routes. Mexicana and United plan to codeshare on eight crossborder sectors plus a number of domestic routes within the US and Mexico. Their pact, slated to take effect on 1 May, still awaits Washington's approval.
Access to US feed is a major reason why the Mexicans want US codeshares, as is the cost of interlining. Fernando Flores, Mexicana's chief executive, explains that the main problem for Mexican airlines is that interline agreements for connections on to US domestic sectors often require the Mexican airlines to pay higher prorates to their US counterparts than US airlines flying to Mexico charge their own passengers for on-line connections. The difference makes interline connections uncompetitive - hence codeshares.
But why Mexicana picked a different US partner to Aéro-mexico is less clear. The two, which share a joint holding company, are required to compete within Mexico, but the competition commission has not objected to international cooperation, such as the co-branded Alas de America flights from the US through Mexico to South America.
While the different US codeshare partners appear to clash with the aims of the Alas venture, Melvyn Roig, director general for Alas de America training, thinks the US codeshares can only help. 'They broaden the scope of Alas de America by permitting connections to all US cities on the route systems of Delta and United - a great advantage,' he argues.
William Alderman, senior vice president and Latin American specialist at International Aviation Sales, sees a more basic issue. 'It's not a question of routes, but a question of management. Is there one chairman of the board, one CFO, and one marketing manager? No, there's two of each. From a macro-economic point of view there's no rationale for two separate airlines.'
Source: Airline Business
