United Joins Mexico Capacity Cut
Jennifer Michels jennifer_michels@aviationweek.com
Darren Shannon darren_shannon@aviationweek.com
United said today it will be cutting capacity to Mexico on Tuesday as a result of a demand falloff due to the swine flu.
It will reduce weekly roundtrip flights from the U.S. to 24 from 61 in May, and to 52 from 90 in June.
The airline serves Cancun, Los Cabos, Mexico City, and Puerto Vallarta, and will not be dropping any of those cities, just reducing service. With the exception of Mexico City, the other three are mainly leisure destinations. George Hamlin, an airline consultant in Fairfax, Va., notes that the vacation markets are those that are most in jeopardy of losing service. Business travel, and those visiting friends and family in markets such as Mexico City, will not likely see much of a drop during this type of a crisis, because the trips are seen as more essential.
United has less than 2 percent of its consolidated capacity dedicated to Mexico.
"We are responding quickly, adjusting our schedule to match customer interest," said John Tague, executive vice president and chief operating officer. "We will continue to monitor demand for travel to Mexico, and will adjust our flight schedule accordingly."
United is notifying customers and travel agencies of the changes to its schedule and is re-accommodating customers on other flights. United and other major airlines flying to Mexico have issued a travel waiver enabling customers to more easily change their travel plans for travel to, from and through Mexico.
Earlier today, Continental announced it will be cutting Mexico available seat miles in half, and the actual number of flights will be reduced by 40%. Like United, it is not dropping any destinations. It did not say when its temporary capacity drawdown would end.
"Given the swift changes we are seeing in the marketplace, we need to react prudently but quickly to bring our capacity more into line with demand," said Chairman and CEO Larry Kellner. "We were already experiencing soft market conditions due to the economy, and now our Mexico routes in particular have extra weakness. Our plan going forward will be to continue to monitor demand levels we are seeing and adjust our capacity and costs accordingly."
Photo: Airbus
