Mexico and the success of
the globalised ULCC model — March 2022

The pandemic has rationalised the Mexican airline industry, leaving it with two dynamic ULCCs — Volaris and Viva Aerobus — and one full-service carrier about to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy — Aeroméxico.

Mexico shut down most of its domestic capacity in April 2020 in response to the first Covid-19 wave, the US imposed severe restrictions on travel between the two countries, and other important trading partners like Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, and Canada completely closed their borders to international travel. Overall, 2020 domestic traffic was 50% down on 2019, international traffic by almost 60%. But markets have been reopening since the spring of 2021, and last year traffic rebounded by 60% domestically and 76% internationally, By the end of the year traffic volumes were strongly up not just on 2020 but also 2019.