Mexican airlines Interjet and Aeromar, both struggling to rebound from losses suffered due to the coronavirus pandemic, announced Wednesday that they have signed a codeshare agreement, allow them to market routes jointly.
Interjet will now sell Aeromar tickets on flights from Mexico City to Acapulco, Oaxaca, Puerto Escondido, San Luis Potosí, Veracruz, Zihuatanejo, and Guadalajara-Puerto Vallarta.
Meanwhile, Aeromar will sell Interjet flights from Mexico City to Chetumal, Guadalajara, Mérida, Monterrey, Puerto Vallarta, Tijuana and Villahermosa.
“The scope of the agreement is expected to be expanded in the short term, to cover the entire route network of both airlines,” Interjet said in a statement.
The signing of the agreement occurs at a time when domestic air travel in Mexico is expected to begin to recover, and the alliance comes at an important time for Interjet, which has suffered staggering losses due to financial issues that were only compounded by the coronavirus lockdown.
Interjet lost 90% of its fleet after 25 leased aircraft were repossessed by creditors in recent months. The company stopped flying internationally and has just five planes servicing its 10 remaining routes.
But things could be looking up for the embattled carrier, the third largest in Mexico, which has been teetering on the verge of bankruptcy for months, as it recently announced a US $150 million capital injection from investors Alejandro del Valle and Carlos Cabal Peniche.
Aeromar, Mexico’s oldest domestic airline, had been financially troubled for several years before it began to turn a profit again in 2019. The airline plans to open six new routes in the course of 2020, and hopes to recover 100% of its operations by December 2021.
The alliance marks the first time Mexican domestic airlines have entered into a codeshare agreement.
Source: MSN (sp), Simple Flying (en)
