After JetBlue Airways ceases flights to Mexico City in early 2020, no US low cost airline will serve the market. JetBlue, along with Southwest and Alaska Airlines, had high hopes for Mexico City after they gained slots divested by Aeromexico and Delta as a requirement for those two airlines to launch their joint venture.
But over the course of the past year each of those low cost operators has pulled out of Mexico City, which is largely a business market. Given the dominance of Mexican airlines at Mexico City Juarez International airport, low cost operators targeting VFR or leisure passengers faced an uphill climb in making the market work, since capacity was growing at a fast pace.
Even as those airlines faced heightened capacity in the market, JetBlue is uncontested in two markets it is pulling from Mexico City and has suggested that routes to Juarez were simply not producing satisfactory margins.
The exit of all of those airlines shows that even the best predictions of a successful route performance can change quickly as market conditions shift.
After clamouring for available slots at the airport, US airlines decide to exit Mexico City
JetBlue has been serving Mexico City since 2015, when it launched service to Juarez International from its focus cities of Fort Lauderdale and Orlando International.
But the airline often said that its slot times were less than favourable, and it ended up obtaining slots that Delta and Aeromexico were required to divest in order to gain regulatory authority to establish their transborder joint venture.
Originally, JetBlue had aimed to launch flights from Los Angeles to Mexico City, but changed course and introduced service from Boston and New York JFK.
Southwest also gained slots from the Delta and Aeromexico divestment. At one point, it served Mexico City from Orange County alongside its service from Houston Hobby. The airline also planned to operate service from Los Angeles and Fort Lauderdale, but Southwest returned those slots and never launched those planned routes.
At the end of 1Q2019 Southwest exited the Mexico City market when it pulled service from Houston Hobby, determining that that market was more business oriented, and it could find better opportunities for the capacity it had deployed to Mexico City…
