Aeromar, a small Mexican carrier, plans to grow 30% in passenger numbers for 2020. The airline will do it by expanding its fleet as well as its route map. Let’s check it out.
Six new routes
During an event held in Mexico City, Aeromar announced that in 2020 it will launch six new routes. This airline focuses more on small markets, a point-to-point carrier as you’ll see.
The routes Aeromar will launch are: Villahermosa-Merida, Merida-Tapachula, Tapachula-Tuxtla, Tuxtla-Oaxaca, Oaxaca-Ixtepec, and Mexico-Laredo. All but the latter are routes for the southern part of Mexico.
With these six new routes, Aeromar expects to finally transport more than a million passengers in a year. In 2019, the carrier received 800,000 passengers. This was a growth of 10% in comparison to the previous year.
Even so, Aeromar is still light years away from the number of passengers held by the four top competitors in Mexico: Volaris, Aeromexico, Interjet, and Viva Aerobus. Here, we’ve discussed previously which Mexican low-cost airline is the best.
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An ATR-based fleet
Aeromar currently has a fleet of nine aircraft, according to FlightRadar. Two of these are ATR 42-600, with a capacity for 48 passengers. The remaining are ATR 72-600 and have a capacity for 72 passengers.
According to the airline, this year it will receive two new ATR airplanes.
This fleet is super effective for the business model of the airline which is to connect the smaller cities in the country. But, it is a non-discussed problem for Mexico City International Airport.
The main hub in Mexico is congested. It can no longer give away any slots in 2020. So, the only way for it to grow in the number of passengers is by allowing bigger aircraft to arrive. This is why airlines like Aeromexico Connect are planning to substitute their smaller planes with bigger ones. And, alternatively, it is why airlines like Interjet are operating from other hubs like Toluca International Airport. And there it comes Aeromar: with a fleet of small airplanes operating in this congested airport.
Finally, to end this article, let’s discuss who is Aeromar. Did you know it was even briefly connected with Avianca?
Who is Aeromar?
The airline was founded in 1987. It has always operated in Mexico City’s airport. It only has one international route to McAllen, Texas, and a total of 27 destinations within Mexico.
At the beginning of 2019, there were rumors that pointed to a near bankruptcy of the airline. For years prior, Aeromar was constantly linked to Avianca. German Efromovich, the former owner of the South American carrier, once said that he would invest in Aeromar. There was even a new name for the carrier: Avianca Mexico.
But all of these rumors disappeared with the oust of Efromovich. Anko van der Werff, new CEO of Avianca said in October 2019 that acquiring Aeromar wasn’t a good idea because Avianca already had a codeshare agreement with Aeromexico.
Then, Avianca started to focus on its own ATR fleet with the launch of Avianca Express. All this lead Aeromar to launch a new commercial strategy. The airline is approaching a more low-cost carrier model by putting up big discounts online every Tuesday.
It’s too soon to know if this strategy will benefit Aeromar. For now, let us think that it will. Have you flown with Aeromar? Let us know in the comments.
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