Air Canada Welcomes Agreement to Expand Air Services between Canada and Mexico
 

http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/1308...ada-and-mexico

MONTREAL, Feb. 18, 2014 /CNW Telbec/ - Air Canada today welcomed the signing of an expanded Canada-Mexico Air Transport Agreement that will facilitate flying between the two countries and benefit business, travelers and shippers.

"Mexico is an important market for Air Canada and this expanded agreement will further strengthen air linkages between Canada and our NAFTA partner. Among other things it provides an open framework for direct flights, introduces more commercial flexibility and contains provisions for safety and security. This is an important agreement and we encourage the federal government to take the next step to build travel and tourism between Canada and Mexico and relax visa requirements for Mexican citizens visiting Canada in order that we can derive the full benefit of this agreement," said Derek Vanstone, Vice President of Corporate Strategy, Industry and Government Affairs at Air Canada. "More generally, the agreement also accords with Air Canada's desire for liberalized air agreements with large and important markets to expand air services and access in order to provide greater choice, convenience and travel opportunities for all Canadians, whether for business or leisure."

I thought a blue skies agreement already existed between Canada and Mexico. AC already flies to MEX-PVR-CUN-CZM-HUX-SJD-ZIH. Zacatecas here we come?

I do hope that more flights open to Mexico from Winnipeg,

I would love a Dreamliner flight YYC MEX my guess is that it would be a great aircraft for this route.

I would love to get YUL-MEX service back.

Not holding out any hope for YEG getting any Mexico from AC. ;)

LOL ..... Exactly.
Wasn't as if any previous service was cut due to lack of approvals. What was the point of this?
Canadian and Mexican airlines are now clear to lose money serving more cities with increased frequencies than ever before!!

Hope this means we can :-: Mexican hat trick :-: again :D :D :D :D

Where would the demand come from to even come close to filling a 787 on this route?

Likely at the extreme end of a 319's capabilities but the 737MAX could handle it once they begin to arrive if there were enough profitable volume.

Isn't Mexico City slot controlled?
Doubt we see AC or WJ to the expansion rather Aeromexico expanding more into Canada.
Although my company has lots of people in GDL but there mostly blue collar

Double post

The national carrier of Mexico, Aerméxico, is a member of Skyteam not Star Alliance.

YEG-CUN on Rouge would make sense.

Sounds like a route which could work with Rouge's costs.

I too share others' confusion about this announcement... Never heard of any airline not being able to operate Canada-Mexico due to being denied rights. Open skies must just be a formality.

As someone who lives in YEG, but whose work in the oil business takes him down to MEX regularly (and hopefully, even more regularly soon...) the great hope is a much needed YYC-MEX. Already me and many of my colleagues are happy about the YEG-DFW on AA, but all os us would love to see a non-stop from Alberta to MEX. As Mexico opens up its energy sector, there is *HUGE* business demand for us to get down there.

However, the reality is that this is probably more about Aeromexico (and Interjet and Volaris) getting more access to Canada than anything to do with AC or Westjet getting more access to MEX.

It might be that the announcement about welcoming opening skies was made so that AC add its request of the Canadian government to drop the visa requirement on Mexicans.

"Mexican Hat Dance" :)

Without feed from Canadian markets, I doubt we'll see Volaris or Interjet launching service to Canada.

Many Canadian airlines fly to all kinds of places in Mexico but it seems like under the rules today, there were all kinds of holes in the market due to gov't imposed restrictions.

For example, WJ operates to Puerto Vallarta non stop from a number of markets, but not from Toronto. Same with Toronto to Cabo, Toronto to Ixtapa and any where in Canada to Huatulco.

This may allow access to these markets from the largest market in Canada and other new city pairs for Westjet and other Canadian airlines.

At 2000nm, YYCMEX is no real problem for an A319 (nor current 73G). In fact, AC sends an A319 on MEXYVR which is 5% further.
It's not an aircraft thing, it's a demand thing as you point out - YYC would cannibalize YVR as well.

Not happy with AC MEX-YVR departing MEX at 6am. Means getting up at 2am or just don't go to bed.

Return through YYZ - same price and more miles. Choice of two flights per day

One of those two flights (AC990) is a red-eye on a 319 that leaves MEX at midnight, arrives at YYZ around 5:30am. I've grown to despise that flight over the last 6 months. AC992 (leaves MEX earlyish afternoon) is very rarely an option for me.

So, for me it's either AC990 (leaves midnight for YYZ) or AC997 (leaves 6am for YVR.) Either way, I'm not getting any sleep. Plus, there are no lounges open for either flight at MEX during those times. The best that can be hoped for is the Amex lounge that sometimes opens at 5am.

The loss of productivity that I feel is rarely worth any extra miles gained by flying via YYZ.

My problem, I guess, is that I actually like flying on Air Canada. So I'm hopeful of an option to YYC. I don't particularly like flying on UA or AA, or transiting through the US (Nexus or no) but I also don't like AC's schedule out of MEX.

I'd suggest AC's very early departure out of MEX is not to deprive you of sleep and productivity.
It's there to mitigate the payload restrictions the A319 would face ex MEX as the temp rises during the day.
MEX is hot and 7300 ft ASL - the A319 would be severely crippled with a midday departure all the way to YVR.

If I remember correctly, Aeromexico did have flights from YYC-MEX a few years ago but they were discontinued fairly quickly due to lack of volume. Sorry, I don't remember the plane size.

I remember seeing a Mexicana 319 at a gate in YYC before they went bankrupt.

Aeromexico has operated farmworker flights between Mexico City and Hamilton, Ontario. That's pretty open skies.

Mexicana operated 4x/week to YYC and 3x/week to YEG before they went bankrupt.

Mexicana also few red eye YVR-MEX.

AM has dabbled with YYZ and currently only serves YUL. For the same reasons that you don't see Southwest, Frontier or JetBlue serving Canada - unlikely that Interjet and Volaris will be heading North anytime soon.

Isn't MEX slot controlled? That pretty much guarantees if there is a direct flight it will be AM and not AC who only has few dailies.

Hogwash. :rolleyes:

AC Asian connections bank is the actual answer.

It was a Mexican carrier, but not AeroMexico. It was oneworld partner, Mexicana MX. They used a former-AC A319 up to 5x weekly (performed better than MEX-YEG) which was cancelled on short notice as the carrier neared ceasing operations. AC managed to have it seized for non-payment during an overnight YYC layover and it sat my the AC hangar for many, many months.

Negative.

But its passenger growth over the past few years is steady and impressive. With over 31M pax last year, it is coming to closer to YYZ every year, which hit 35M last year.

I didn't see your post before I responded, apologies.

Correct, MX actually had up to 12 weekly flights at its peak before the visa requirement was slammed into place overnight in July 2009.

This new agreement has me quite puzzled actually. Other than increasing CUN flights, exactly why is AC welcoming this? Very curious.

I recall from a few years ago when AC launched their YVR-MEX route , the times were an early am departure ex-YVR and an afternoon departure ex-MEX. In my e-mail correspondence with a AC SVP from that period, the route was not a stellar performer and time tweaks were made to include better same-day connections from with Western Canada and USA. Still struggling, they moved it to an ugly, early 605 am departure which arrives in around 10 am. It has stayed there for some time now, so that must have done the trick route performance-wise. As others here have mentioned, it is an ugly departure time and I would never get up at 3ish am to get to the airport by 430 am to check-in just to arrive a mess.

The YYZ-MEX time changes are odd to me and the red-eye can't be a good performer in my mind, unless they think they can get away with because AM has their red-eye MEX-YUL as well. No idea there. Like others, I won't be on that one either.

That leaves the lone AC option for me which departs 145 pm and arrive into YYZ at 710 pm. That means you miss the 8 pm flights to YEG, YYC, YVR forcing you to take the last ones of the night which means you might be in bed by 2 am local time or later.

So Star Alliance-wise, that leaves UA via SFO, DEN, LAX, IAH, ORD which most of the time is far less expensive anyways.

Oh but it is true. Slots are required at MEX.
But they are not that difficult to acquire.

Very interesting.

My source at AICM indicated otherwise in previous conversations that centred around the much-delayed start date of the new MEX-MUC LH service.