Mexican airlines, en route to a slow recovery.

Without government support, the aviation industry in Mexico persists in flying. Between January and July, airlines operating in the country served 27 million 862,574 people on regular flights, which represented a 53.2% drop (during the first semester the drop was 86.2%), led by the ultra low cost model of Volaris and VivaAerobus.

Data from the Ministry of Communications and Transportation (SCT) refer that only during July, traffic continued with a slight recovery, by registering an annual fall of 74.5% to two million 412,156 passengers, a decrease that was lower compared to 86.1% in June and 94.2% in May, when air transportation hit bottom due to the health contingency of Covid-19.

In the last few months, the domestic market has presented a greater reactivation than the foreign market. In July, domestic traffic decreased 66.6%, while domestic airlines in international service dropped 85.5% and foreign airlines in international service dropped 82.1 percent.

The nine airlines that operate within the country served 15 million 025,445 passengers between January and July, with a drop of 50.9 percent, those with international flights to three million 896,139 and a drop of 59.3 percent, while foreign airlines had a reduction of 53.4 percent, mobilizing eight million 940, 990 people.

In July, Volaris served 897,109 passengers, 52.3% less than the same month in 2019, but consolidated its leadership with a market share of 47%, that is, 18 percentage points more than last year, when it had 28.3 percent.

“By improving customer demand, our main focus is on cash preservation, in parallel with the progressive recovery in ASM (available seats per mile) productivity through offering the lowest fares in the market. As mentioned in the previously issued guide, by August 2020 Volaris plans to operate approximately 70% of its capacity with respect to the originally published itinerary in response to a gradual market recovery,” said its director, Enrique Beltranena.

Interjet does not take off

In July, VivaAerobus is the second airline with the most passengers served, 418,450, and a drop of 63.7 percent, followed by Aeroméxico Connect and Aeroméxico, with 254,540 and 251,980 people down from 70 and 76 percent.

In the fifth place, with only 38,811 travelers served, Interjet presented the worst behavior with a drop of 97.3 percent compared to July 2019, since it has already added its fourth month without having international operations, a market that had become its main objective at least in the last two years, to the extent that this line of business already represented more than 50 percent of its flights.

Recently, Interjet received an injection of capital of 150 million dollars with which they assure they are able to pay their debts and strengthen their operations. Recently, the company made an alliance with Aeromar to increase travel options for their clients (since August 5th they offer flights from Mexico City to Acapulco, Oaxaca, Puerto Escondido, San Luis Potosi, Veracruz, Zihuatanejo and Guadalajara-Puerto Vallarta and Aeromar participates in the sale of routes to Chetumal, Guadalajara, Merida, Monterrey, Puerto Vallarta, Tijuana and Villahermosa).

By Alejandro De La Rosa – El Economista