In May 2021, the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) downgraded Mexico’s aviation safety rating from Category 1 to Category 2. With this, airlines from Mexico couldn’t add any new routes to the United States. Finally in September 2023, the FAA once again upgraded Mexico to a Category 1 rating, meaning that Mexican airlines can finally add new routes to the United States.
Unsurprisingly, Aeromexico has just announced a significant expansion to the United States, which will see the airline adding 17 new routes.
In this post:
Aeromexico adding 17 new routes to United States
In 2024, Aeromexico plans to launch 17 new routes to the United States, departing from seven airports in Mexico to nine airports in the United States. The airline will be using many of the more than 50 new aircraft that it has added to its fleet in the past two years to facilitate this growth.
By July 2024, Aeromexico intends to operate nearly 60 daily frequencies to the United States to a total of 36 destinations, representing a 35% increase compared to departures in 2023. While we don’t yet have exact launch dates, frequencies, or schedules, here are the 17 new routes we can expect:
- Bajio (BJX) to Atlanta (ATL)
- Bajio (BJX) to Detroit (DTW)
- Guadalajara (GDL) to Atlanta (ATL)
- Guadalajara (GDL) to Detroit (DTW)
- Merida (MID) to Atlanta (ATL)
- Mexico City Benito Juarez (MEX) to Boston (BOS)
- Mexico City Benito Juarez (MEX) to Detroit (DTW)
- Mexico City Benito Juarez (MEX) to Salt Lake City (SLC)
- Mexico City Benito Juarez (MEX) to Washington (IAD)
- Mexico City Felipe Angeles (NLU) to Dallas (DFW)
- Mexico City Felipe Angeles (NLU) to McAllen (MFE)
- Monterrey (MTY) to Atlanta (ATL)
- Monterrey (MTY) to Los Angeles (LAX)
- Monterrey (MTY) to New York (JFK)
- Monterrey (MTY) to Salt Lake City (SLC)
- Queretaro (QRO) to Atlanta (ATL)
- Queretaro (QRO) to Detroit (DTW)
This expansion makes a lot of sense
Keep in mind that not only does Delta own a stake in Aeromexico, but the two airlines also have a joint venture between the United States and Mexico, meaning they can coordinate routes, schedules, and even fares.
It’s exciting to see Aeromexico finally adding more capacity to the United States, now that it’s allowed to. As far as these routes go:
- A majority of these routes are to Delta hubs, and feed into Delta’s network; this is particularly true for the Atlanta, Detroit, and Salt Lake City routes, and also (to a lesser extent) true for Boston, Los Angeles, and New York (though those markets are more about point-to-point demand)
- The service out of Mexico City’s new Felipe Angeles Airport is intended to serve some point-to-point markets with significant demand, without using up an slots from Mexico City’s main Benito Juarez Airport
- The Mexico City to Washington route isn’t to a Delta hub, but that seems like it fills a gap that exists in Aeromexico’s network
Bottom line
For the first time in well over two years, Aeromexico is expanding to the United States. The airline is adding a total of 17 new routes from seven airports in Mexico to nine airports in the United States. For the most part, these are services to Delta hubs, which makes sense, given the joint venture between the carriers. So really this is just as much growth for Delta as it is for Aeromexico.
What do you make of Aeromexico’s new service to the United States?
Great job Aeromexico. We need more flights again after the ridiculous downgrade of the safety rating. Love their livery.
meanwhile mexicans still have to wait 900 days to get an interview for a mere b1/b2 visa for a country next door
Good for the updated flights, now we can send back all the illegal immigrants to Mexico. Good work delta. NY can stop whining now
Very excited for competition against UA's IAD-MEX. Flight times suck, and pricing has been astronomical, even by DC standards.
Tim Dunn, Delta shares fell 3% today. What does your fluff have to say.
Add tijuana to morelia direct aeromexico
Very much agree with the couple of others who are very glad to see IADMEX. Here's hoping the times are better than United's on that route which seemed timed for passengers who's destination is DC rather than those of us who live here and want a nonstop option for a long weekend vacation to Mexico City (yes, speaking of myself, will make it work this upcoming President's Day but on the next jaunt to Mexico City I'll look for Aeromexico!)
I just checked the calendar out until July of next year and am not seeing any AM flights loaded yet for IAD; so it looks like all we know at this point is that they're planning on starting the service, but with no idea when at this point (as Ben pointed out in the piece, but I was just being hopeful...).
Yeah ! They are expanding. But right now they have cancel all the direct flights. Yes! The pilots are in strike because Aeromexico doesn’t want to pay them for OT. So now everyone that has bought tickets are getting emails w cancellation. And u still have to request your money back via email and have someone approve it even tho they are the ones who cancel. Look online it says no flights available
Along with this they’ve cut frequencies to SFO from Mex. They used to fly x4 daily from MEX and x2 daily to GDL in the past but now they fly from MEX x2 and have eliminated GDL-SFO.
It's good to see AeroMexico expand.
Here's what I've never understood about the FAA Category issue, it's supposed to be about compliance with ICAO (and therefore internationally recognized) stands, yet no one else ever seems to have much of a problem with some of the places that the US downgrades. The most notable examples seem to be Thailand and Mexico.
Why is that?
That should read "internationally recognized STANDARDS"
This is great news.
I was about to book the UA nonstop MEX-IAD for ~US $850 - it’s the only nonstop offered at the moment.
I’d much rather book an AM flight and credit the points and XP to FlyingBlue, and it would be a real treat if AM brings down the fare!
I just noticed that Delta has pulled its Mexico City to LAX service in January. Not sure if it is turning the route over fully to Aeromexico or if it is reducing to seasonal service.
Interestingly Delta announced a BOS to MEX route in May of this year to begin in December before cancelling it recently…what a *strange* coincidence!
@Thomas - Delta and AeroMexico have anti-trust immunity under their Joint Cooperation Agreement. They can legally and freely talk about which metal flies which routes and when. That was never suspended while Mexico went to Cat2; it restricted AM from starting new routes (so anything new while MX was on Cat2 had to be on DL metal) and there couldn't be codeshares between the two on them. From a strategy standpoint though, they could still...
@Thomas - Delta and AeroMexico have anti-trust immunity under their Joint Cooperation Agreement. They can legally and freely talk about which metal flies which routes and when. That was never suspended while Mexico went to Cat2; it restricted AM from starting new routes (so anything new while MX was on Cat2 had to be on DL metal) and there couldn't be codeshares between the two on them. From a strategy standpoint though, they could still do network planning in preparation for Cat2 ending.
There’s a lot of talk on the Mexican side about this batch of routes being mostly resumptions but that a second batch of routes is coming up next year mostly of brand new routes and destinations, the most talked-about brand new destination being Philadelphia (PHL)
As a PHL resident I hope this comes true as we need more foreign international presence.
When will US carriers announce service to TQO (Tulum)? I bet IAH & DFW are first.
Only thing keeping Tulum from being a success is getting enough yield out of it. There's more than enough demand for a daily 175 form DFW, IAH and ATL. The question is if they can get enough fare premium over CUN to make a 175 work, or enough passengers to make CUN-like fares with a $50-75 premium work. There's also a question if capacity is the route that an airline wants to go (ie running...
Only thing keeping Tulum from being a success is getting enough yield out of it. There's more than enough demand for a daily 175 form DFW, IAH and ATL. The question is if they can get enough fare premium over CUN to make a 175 work, or enough passengers to make CUN-like fares with a $50-75 premium work. There's also a question if capacity is the route that an airline wants to go (ie running an A321) if there's enough hotel space to handle that level of capacity.
Tulum is still VERY new to the Mexico tourism scene - it's not built up a ton (even though compared to five years ago when I lived in MX, it's grown by leaps and bounds).
Swing a miss! Tulum airport is much closer to many hotels north of the city than Cancun airport is. Playa del Carmen is close to a wash. Anything south of it is easily served by the new airport. Think Akumal, Puerto Aventuras, etc.
I’m unaware, but it may even connect more seamlessly to the new Maya Train than CUN does (bus transfer required).
This is nothing but a bunch of YAWN.
The NLU stuff is new/interesting (especially MFE) but the rest of these (with the possible exception on SLC-MTY, can't remember) were all routes flown by DL or AM in the 2018-2019 timeframe. This is just bringing back some stuff that didn't work back then (for reasons including poor timing due to using AM equipment).
United has the only current nonstop between the DC area and Mexico City. This is a good move to increase competition.