United Airlines announced plans to slash several flights to Mexico, as they are blaming due to poor demand. As an example of the cutbacks, the airline will be slashing their nonstop service between Los Angeles and Mexico City effective October 4, 2018 completely.
Other cuts come service to Huatulco (HUX); Mazatlan (MZT), and Villahermosa (VSA). United blames the Delta Air Lines/AeroMexico joint venture as a reason for some of the cutbacks.
Per Bloomberg,
“While our Mexico network remains strong, customer demand on certain routes has declined and service to some markets is unsustainable,†United said. “We continue to closely monitor demand for travel in the region and look for new flying opportunities for our customers.â€
United is stepping back from Mexico as Delta Air Lines Inc. marks the one-year anniversary of an alliance with Grupo Aeromexico SAB that allows the carriers to jointly plan schedules and set fares on 1,100 weekly flights. Delta also holds a 49 percent stake in Aeromexico.
Still, a Saturday flight between Mexico City and Denver will cease June 23, and service between Houston and Mexico City will be cut by one frequency. United will drop two daily flights between Los Angeles and Leon/Guanajuato in October.
Despite the recent cutbacks, United still plans to have a focus on Mexico, as they continue to evolve their route network. However, not all service changes will cuts for United, as the airline will be upguaging service from Houston to San Luis Potosi from a CRJ200 to a 76-seat regional jet.
What are your thoughts about United’s latest cutbacks on their Mexico Service? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.
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Interesting how they would cut flights from their super hub of IAH with about 85% of the traffic. And also ending LAX-MEX they’ve had for decades while AA keeps their LAX-MEX flights after having acquired the slots from Alaska a few years ago.
UA is retrenching big time at LAX. Delta has grabbed market share largely at the expense of UA, while AA has held. Arguably UA’s IAH hub and AA’s DFW hubs well positioned for Mexico service; but too we see the real strength in the DL/AM JV with hubs in both countries well away from border zones.
Makes no sense to deal with UA between LAX and MEX.
-Aeromexico offers a slightly better product, and depending on the flight, it might be flown by a 788, instead of the 737. In this case, the AM/DL partnership is a big plus, if there’s a need to connect domestically/regionally, in either country. With no Star carriers in Mexico, any connections in Mexico are the pax’ problem, not the airline’s. This could change once the Aeromar-Avianca thing starts to move forward.
-Interjet offers a significantly better product, with exit-seat pitch aircraft-wide (34″?), free booze, and 1 or 2 free bags, not sure. Their network out of MEX is fairly decent, but lacks the connections on the US side. That said, if I needed to connect in the US, LAX would be at the very bottom of my airport list, at least on the US-bound flight.
-Traffic between the US and Mexico is down no matter how people try to spin it. MZT and HUX are likely vacation spots for the US, and I don’t see much local traffic traveling to the US. Mexicans are ditching Vermont and Vail for Whistler. Other touristy destinations are also down, with people choosing to vacation domestically, in Canada, or Europe. Both the Trump effect and the strong dollar effect.