Mexico Codeshare Prohibited by FAA - AA Policy for MX Re-Ticketing/Refunds et seq
 

Just saw this news on AA dealfinder ...

http://www.aa.com/netsaaver/viewProm...l&locale=en_US

Update On Mexico Codeshare Bookings

Following the Federal Aviation Administration's decision on July 30 to revise the rating of Mexico's civil aviation authority, U.S. airlines are prohibited from offering codeshare service on any Mexican airline. As a result, we are advising our customers who have already purchased an American Airlines codeshare flight operated by Mexicana that they will be re-ticketed as Mexicana passengers on the same itineraries or they have the option to receive a refund for their purchased flight. Mexicana codeshare flights operated by American or American Eagle are not affected by the FAA's decision.

Mexicana Earning Table:
http://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/pa...s/mexicana.jsp

What's the issue? You earn full miles and EQMs, plus the elite bonus. Why the worry if your flight is coded MX?

What's the underlying rationale for this? Liability issues? If it were a real safety issue than they wouldn't all pax to fly them at all. Just changing the flight number just seems bureaucratic.

The bigger concern is Mexicana's financial health. This week they had a couple of planes temporarily seized after they landed in Canada and there are concerns about their entering Mexico's version of bankruptcy protection. Bloomberg article.

Personally, I'd be much more concerned to be flying an unsafe airline than a near-bankrupt airline. I would prefer they don't pay their landing fees before they start compromising on safety.

While Mexicana may have financial troubles, that's not the official reason.
As the FAA press release says, Mexico (so by implication, the Mexican Dirección General de Aeronáutica Civil) does not meet all ICAO safety standards. Some of those standards are about being willing to regulate (neither corrupt nor lazy) and some about resources (technical skills, staffing, etc).

The way international air regulation works is that each ICAO member state has a government organisation responsible for safety regulation of the airlines that are registered in that state. So if the state's regulator is considered incompetent, all airlines in that state must be considered suspect, since there is no way to regulate them separately. That's why all Indonesian airlines were banned from the EU from 2007 to 2009, for example, even though Garuda are a pretty competent lot - there was no way for EU aviation regulators to have good certainty that anyone was checking on Garuda and a number of other airlines in Indonesia certainly were not being properly regulated.

So the FAA won't let insufficiently-competently-regulated airlines start new service, or codeshare with US carriers. Unfortunately for competent airlines in incompetently-regulated places, there's no way for the airline to prove they are doing it right if their regulator is not.

Financial stability does have a role to play in aviation safety, in that airlines with no operating cash can be tempted to choose, or be forced, not to do proper maintenance. But in this case, it's a government-to-government action which is a consequence of international aviation regulation being a government-to-government activity.

Today Mexicana filed for bankruptcy protection. Hope they come through.

Edit: WSJ Article http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...320495214.html

Wow... what a spectacular entrance into the OneWorld alliance...

For the record, I hope they come through too.

Regards

I'm sure they considered JAL to be their role model.

Not great news. According to news reports and Mexicana parent themselves, the issues relate to Mexicana, and not MexicanaClick. International itins are most impacted. The company has proposed two options for the unions, neither of which the union apparently likes (either #1, take massive pay cuts with upside when the company is profitable, or #2, the union can literally run the company).

I am planning on flying MX from ORD-MEX-BOG in coming month. So far it looks like MEX routes are safe, but certainly causes some worry about getting to a destination and being stranded. Will need to keep an eye on the bankruptcy and routes.

American/MEXICANA; DELTA/AeroMexico terminates codeshare flight
 

Sorry if this is a duplicate:

http://airlineroute.net/2010/08/03/m...g10-codeshare/

Looks like Delta has a similar notice on their website too.

Just Re-booked
 

I just re-booked my 8/14 Code Share flight on AA metal. Completely hassle-free via the EXP desk. Would suggest that others in the same position do similarly.

A recent article in Airliner World is most interesting - ILFC, CIT, GECAS and AerCap, other aircraft lease compansey, are trying to recover aircraft from MX for nonpayment of lease payments, and whilst they have repossessed about six (see below for Air Canada repos) they can not do so in Mexico under current agreements. None of this plays well for anyone planning on using MX and expecting AA miles in the near future - one must actually fly first.

This all began when "Mexicana’s world started to collapse July 30, when two Airbus narrowbodies were impounded in Canada. At the time the carrier called this action “legally unjustified and a direct consequence of erroneous information provided by different media outlets,” but behind the scenes it was maneuvering to stop any more repossessions." - Aviation Week

"...although some flights to California and Panama have been cancelled. Its sister airlines, budget carriers MexicanaLink and MexicanaClick, are unaffected." and

"For now, Mexicana is doing its best to keep its 69 aircraft out of the hands of jumpy creditors. Two were seized in Calgary last week by Air Canada, which had leased the planes to Mexicana and apparently heard a rumour that bankruptcy was in the offing. Other attempts have reportedly been made in Chicago and at JFK airport in New York. (Economist blog)