Mexican aviation: Domestic shares shift as transborder rationalises

Growth in Mexico's domestic passenger market remained steady in 1Q2019 as nearly 12 million passengers travelled on the country's airlines. But passenger share has shifted, with ULCC Volaris leapfrogging Grupo Aeromexico as the country's largest domestic airline measured by passengers carried.

Volaris made a domestic push in the first three months of 2019 with the introduction of 16 new routes while Aeromexico unexpectedly needed to deal with the grounding of the Boeing 737 Max. But even prior to the grounding, Aeromexico had planned temperate capacity growth in 2019, while its domestic ULCC competitors are on track for double digit increases.

Both airlines see continuing capacity rationalisation in the US transborder market, which should continue to help yields recover on those routes. However, Aeromexico remains cautions in its approach on US transbroder routes while Volaris continues to expand