Emirates Expands to Mexico City

Big moves are being made by the UAE-based Emirates and Mexico-based InterJet Airlines. The two carriers have announced a new, enhanced interline agreement that will shuttle passengers between Mexico, the Middle East, and various other destinations.

The Agreement

The new agreement is an amendment to the original one signed in April 2019. The first agreement was only one-way, allowing Emirates to travel to Mexico City via the United States. Now, the deal will work both ways, giving InterJet customers the freedom to fly to Emirates destinations in Asia, the Middle East, and North Africa.

Emirates’ choosing of InterJet over its competitors, Aeromexico and Volaris, suggests the airline’s confidence in InterJet’s growth potential. Although InterJet is the third-largest carrier in Mexico in terms of fleet size, it is one of North American’s fastest-growing airlines, successfully increasing its international passenger traffic by more than 30% and total passenger traffic by 9% since 2018. Both airlines believe there is mutual gain from this partnership – InterJet can benefit from incoming Emirates passengers to boost its domestic operations, and Emirates can feed off of InterJet’s international demand.

This agreement offers benefits to passengers, making it easier for them to transfer flights. They will not have to check in to a connecting flight on either airline or have to claim and re-check their luggage. Adnan Kazim, Emirates’ Chief Commercial Officer, said, “We’re pleased to establish a partnership with Interjet Airlines, allowing Emirates passengers to benefit from increased choice, flexibility and ease of connection to different cities within Mexico and to regional international points beyond. This partnership further demonstrates our commitment to Mexico for the long run, as we continue to look at ways to build our operations in the market to best serve our customers.”

InterJet’s Chief Commercial Officer, Julio Gamero, said in a statement about the partnership, “Since our initial interline agreement in April 2019, Interjet’s relationship with Emirates has truly been a success. This enhanced agreement, provides travelers from both airlines access to a broader network not only with more flight choices, but for Emirates customers, access to more of Mexico with our many domestic connections from Mexico City. When you combine this with seamless reservations, one-stop check-in with baggage checked to the final destination, more legroom between seats and Interjet’s outstanding on-board service, it’s easy to see why this agreement is a win-win for both airlines.”

InterJet currently offers domestic operations to cities in Mexico, such as Leon/Guanajuato, Cancun, Chihuahua, Guadalajara, Monterrey, Puerto Vallarta, Tijuana, and Villahermosa.

Emirates History With Aeromexico

Based on this article alone, it may seem that things are nice and peachy between Emirates and Mexico, but there is a history between Emirates and Mexico’s largest carrier, Aeromexico, over the right to fly between Mexico City and Barcelona.

Aeromexico has maintained a monopoly over the Mexico City-Barcelona route, so they were not pleased when Emirates was granted the fifth-freedom right to fly from Dubai to Mexico City via Barcelona. Aeromexico challenged the ruling and was able to get a judge to block the route, but Emirates got that overturned in November. Those flights began earlier this week.

[Featured Image: Emirates]