Volaris to Introduce Guadalajara - San Antonio Connection

Mexican low-cost carrier, Volaris, is to further expand international links into the US with a new service between its base in the city of Guadalajara, Jalisco, and San Antonio, Texas, its 12th destination in the US and 27th market to be served directly from Guadalajara. The new route will be operated on a twice weekly basis and is scheduled to launch from December 14, 2013.

This will be Volaris’ first flight into the state of Texas and will further support the strengthening of the carrier's commitment to air connectivity and promoting bi-national cultural, economic, and commercial exchange between Mexico and the US. The link is part of its ‘Volaris always with you and your budget’ initiative to support VFR demand by offering "fares that make you travel". The airline’s CEO, Enrique Beltranena, addressed the importance of the market segment targeted by the new flight.

"The segment of travellers visiting friends and family between the US and Mexico is the largest of its kind in the world, it is essential to satisfy the demand for this much needed service on both sides of the border, offering flights at outstanding fares and with high services standards," he said.

Although San Antonio is already linked to Mexico through the flights of Aeromexico Connect to Mexico City and Monterrey; InterJet to Mexico City, Monterrey and Toluca; and AirTran Airways to Cancun and Mexico City, this will be the first non-stop service to Guadalajara since Mexicana last served the route in November 2004.

According to Beltranena, it is the lack of current service on the Guadalajara – San Antonio city pair that has most attracted the carrier to launch the route. In 2012 an estimated 35,000 bi-directional O&D passengers flew on the route despite the lack of non-stop flights. This figure represented an increase of 28.8 per cent on the level of O&D demand the previous year.

These demand statistics show there is a strong base demand for the new route and when you consider that San Antonio is the seventh most populated city in the United States with 2.1 million inhabitants, of which 55 per cent are of Mexican origin the interest in introducing the link to Guadalajara, where Volaris is the leading airline with over 40 daily departures, is clear.

"We seek to consolidate our presence in Guadalajara by extending our destination offering from this city, so our customers no longer have to consider ground transportation options to travel to cities such as San Antonio. Volaris' fares will make them travel," he said.

Since launching operations in March 2006, Volaris has increased its network from an initial five routes to its current 95 and its fleet from four to 44 aircraft. The airline currently operates over 200 daily flight segments on routes connecting 33 cities in Mexico and eleven cities in the United States.

Considering those amazing statistics that over half of the 2.1 million inhabitants of San Antonio are of Mexican origin, we look in greater detail at demand between the Texas city and Mexico during 2012 and highlight then ten largest O&D markets. According to MIDT data over 560,000 bi-directional O&D passengers travelled on this route. Guadalajara was the fourth largest market in Mexico from/to San Antonio and was the largest without a non-stop flight connection.