A few days ago, Mexicana de Aviación, Mexico’s government owned airline, placed its first “fresh” aircraft order. Now the airline — or more accurately, Mexico’s outgoing president — has revealed expansion plans for the airline, including flights to the United States.
In this post:
Mexicana picks up new Embraer E2 jets
Mexicana has placed an order for 20 Embraer jets, comprised of 10 E190-E2s and 10 E195-E2s. The airline has been able to get these on fairly short notice. Here’s what the delivery timeline is expected to look like:
- Five Embraer E195-E2s will be delivered in the second quarter of 2025
- Seven Embraer E190-E2s will be delivered in 2026
- Three Embraer E190-E2s and five Embraer E195-E2s will be delivered in 2027
For those not familiar with the Embraer E190-E2 and E195-E2, these are the latest generation jets from the Brazilian aircraft manufacturer’s lineup. The planes have impressive range, economics, and passenger experience.
Mexicana plans to configure its E190-E2s with 108 seats, and its E195-E2s with 132 seats. The planes will be in a single cabin layout (so there’s no premium cabin), and will be in a 2-2 configuration.
Mexicana will be the first airline in Mexico to operate Embraer’s E2 jets. These jets will allow Mexicana to fly anywhere within Mexico, as well as to most places in the United States, the Caribbean, and even many points in South America.
For context on this carrier, in late 2023 we saw Mexicana make a comeback, and it can only be described as one of the more unusual airline startups that we’ve seen.
Mexicana used to be Mexico’s biggest airline back in the day, but the company liquidated in 2010, after being privatized in 2005. So while I’d say Mexico has a fair bit of aviation competition nowadays, the government decided to launch an airline with the old Mexicana name, and have the military run it.
It seems like one of the main goals of the new airline was bringing more flights to Felipe Angeles International Airport (NLU), which is Mexico City’s new second airport, as it hasn’t gained as much traction with airlines as the government had hoped. That airport is also run by the military.
So far, Mexicana has launched operations with a handful of planes, including three Boeing 737-800s and two Embraer E145s.
Mexicana plans international route expansion
Currently, Mexicana exclusively operates domestic flights. However, at a press conference about the aircraft order, Mexico’s President, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, outlined future expansion plans for the airline.
Now, it’s worth emphasizing that Mexico recently elected a new leader, so one has to wonder how the carrier’s strategy will shift. The most interesting tidbit that was revealed was Mexicana’s plan to expand internationally.
While exact details remain to be seen (regulatory permission hasn’t been sought yet), @IshrionA has the rundown of what’s planned:
- Mexicana wants to fly from Mexico City’s Felipe Angeles International Airport (NLU) to Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Miami, New York, and San Francisco
- Mexicana wants to fly from Tijuana (TIJ) to Portland
- Outside of the United States, Mexicana wants to fly to Bogota, Caracas, Havana, Lima, Montreal, Ottawa, Punta Cana, San Jose, and Vancouver
Mexicana’s plans are… bizarre? Like, the airline is planning one international route from Tijuana to the United States, and it’s to Portland? And how exactly will Mexicana make the other routes work without any sort of a partnership? These are all markets that are already very well served by existing airlines, except to Mexico City’s Aeropuerto Internacional Benito Juárez (MEX).
I don’t know what to make of this airline, other than to wonder if the country’s new administration will just drop this airline startup.
Bottom line
Mexico’s government owned airline, Mexicana, has placed an aircraft order with Embraer. The airline will be taking delivery of 20 E2 jets, including 10 E190-E2s and 10 E195-E2s. The Embraer E2 jets are fantastic planes, with great passenger comfort and fuel economy, and they’re also available on fairly short notice, so this seems like a sensible order (well, assuming you’re going to place an aircraft order).
That being said, I can’t exactly wrap my head around what Mexicana’s strategy is. The airline wants to expand internationally in seemingly random markets, many of which are already well served.
What do you make of Mexicana’s Embraer order, and international expansion plans?
There's no strategy, the guy is a lunatic and he is on his way out...
I welcome the competition. Fares between SFO and Mexico have become very expensive since Covid. Pre COVID I regularly bought $200 round trips. Now I rarely see anything under $500.
Very odd that LAX, ONT, SAN, or even SNA are not among their expansion plans when those are easy grabs for large Mexican-American populations. I’m sure there are reasons, like other competition but they seem like easy grabs.
Having seen the red eye Volaris PDX-GDL ticket counter and gate many times, that flight is always PACKED. I can see PDX-TIJ working, it's just not the folks who read this blog ;)
The same is true for Viva Aerobus' flights to the US. They even do weekly flights to Cancun from various cities in the US.
Mexicana is simply looking at US cities with large Mexican communities. I prefer Viva or Volaris any day over a US low cost airline.
Mexicana’s E2s are no threat to Aeromexico’s 787 premium cabin or cargo business.
Will the military pressure Mexican business / government to transfer their spend to Mexicana now?
TIJ-PDX is indeed bizarre. A slot that needs to be used? Competition with a SAN-PDX route? Vanity project for some politician or businessman? Should become clear over time.
"wonder if the country’s new administration will just drop this airline startup."
The new President is a self-admitted protege of the outgoing.
Anything can happen, but it's doubtful that her administration is going to be a radical departure on any course of policy.
The change in administration is only because of term limits preventing AMLO from standing again, the new president is from the same party.
Claudia Sheinbaum, the new elected president, is from the same party coalition as the outgoing president. Some of her projects and campaign promises are (related to transportation infrastructure and aviation) consolidate Mexicana de Aviación and the newly built airports Felipe Ángeles (NLU) and Tulum. NLU, where the new train line from the airport to Buenavista metro station in México City is almost ready, will be the main hub for Mexicana (Tulum and Tijuana being two...
Claudia Sheinbaum, the new elected president, is from the same party coalition as the outgoing president. Some of her projects and campaign promises are (related to transportation infrastructure and aviation) consolidate Mexicana de Aviación and the newly built airports Felipe Ángeles (NLU) and Tulum. NLU, where the new train line from the airport to Buenavista metro station in México City is almost ready, will be the main hub for Mexicana (Tulum and Tijuana being two of the main routes). Tulum a secondary hub and from there to Punta Cana, Caracas and Lima. From Tijuana to cities farther North like Portland, Vancouver, Ottawa and Montreal.(already announced)
Another project is the reconstruction of the Terminal 1 in México City's Benito Juárez Intl. They already said that the terminal can't be just renewed, it needs to be rebuilt almost in its entirety.
Competitive prices without compromising on comfort, is what is going to attract more customers to Mexicana; the E2 is a comfortable modern aircraft and the configuration they announced is pretty good from a customer point of view.
A little unrelated but you should do a Tijuana flight and review the CBX from San Diego. Tons of value for those living in socal but most seem unaware. TIJ-SJD can be Pennies on the dollar for similar flights out of San Diego or LAX