Aeromexico witnesses 25% hike in YTD UK passenger numbers
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Aeromexico continues to report strong UK market growth as its Heathrow-Mexico City B787 Dreamliner service proves increasingly popular with discerning passengers.
Mexico’s flag carrier, which reported a passenger count of 85,000 on the route in 2015, carried 75,000 from January to September 2016 alone, which the airline’s senior vice president commercial global sales, Jorge Goytortua Bores said represented year-to-date growth of 25%.
“We’ve been operating flights to the UK for four years and the growth has been fantastic,” he told Travel Daily Media.
“We’ve gone from three weekly flights operated by a B767 to next year (March) going daily with a B787-8 (four times weekly) and a B787-9 (three times weekly).
“We will add 19% more capacity on the route next year and we’re looking to reach 150,000 passengers – it’s a great opportunity for us.”
Introducing the B787-9 on three of the seven weekly London- Mexico City services will add 12% more capacity he added. The B787-8 has 243 seats whereas the B787-9 has 275.
Bores said business and leisure traffic were both robust, referencing the “strong trade ties between the UK and Mexico, particularly in the oil and gas industry.
“The UK is also the second biggest inbound market for leisure travel growth after the US,” he said, noting how Canada had been knocked down from second to third place in terms of leading tourism source markets.
“We are working closely with the OTAs and tour operators to incentivise the market to visit Mexico.”
Bores firmly believes that Aeromexico offers an “exceptional on board experience”, particularly in business class, citing the “unique and attentive service”, cuisine from one of the world’s top 15 chefs, the open bar, “internet that works”, as key points of differentiation.
“On the ground our recently-introduced chauffeur-drive service has been very well received too, while through our SME programme we have very good recognition for companies that don’t have global contracts with us,” he added.
The airline also offers connections to 46 domestic destinations via Mexico City and give the London-Mexico flight timing, with a departure time of 11pm, passengers travelling to other locations can often catch their onward flight by 9am the next morning.
Aeromexico will increase capacity on European routes by 30% next year. The Amsterdam service will increase from three weekly to daily flights; Madrid will increase from 10 to 12 flights weekly; and a B787-9 will be rolled out on the Paris daily, boosting capacity by 12%.
Aeromexico is also the only Latin American airline to operate direct services to Asia andas a result, routes to Japan and China are growing by 50%.
“In terms of the overall business, Aeromexico has achieved sustainable growth, reporting profit for 27 consecutive quarters – and we are going for more,” said Bores.
“We believe we can do better and grow further.”
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