Mexican airline Interjet signed an interline agreement with low-cost carrier JetBlue. This will enable both airlines to sell tickets within the route map of one another.

The main market of Interjet is the US

The Mexican low-cost carrier is well aware of the importance of the transborder market between Mexico and the United States. With the new interline agreement signed with JetBlue, Interjet can now offer up to 65 destinations in the US and a bunch more in the Caribbean.

Currently, Interjet flies to Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Dallas, Houston, San Antonio, Miami, Orlando, Chicago, and New York. Last year, William Shaw, Interjet’s CEO said,

“The U.S. is now our largest and most important international market. Our business grew 26 percent year-over-year and our overall passenger traffic increased by eight percent”. 

In total, Interjet served 2.4 million passengers on transborder flights. This is even more important because the total Mexican-US passenger traffic decreased in 2019. This was the first time this had happened in eight years. Just the route Los Angeles-México had a decrease of over 15.5%, as reported by Expansion.

So, while the transborder tendency was down, Interjet managed to increase its presence in the US. Jetblue surely picked up on that.

Interjet lands in Las Vegas
Interjet served 2.4 million passengers between Mexico and the USA in 2019. Photo: Tomás del Coro via Flickr.

What does JetBlue win?

At the moment, Interjet flies to 42 routes within Mexico and 45 internationally, connecting not only with the US, but also with Canada, Cuba, Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Colombia, and Peru. It is the Mexican low-cost carrier most focused on the international market, beating both Volaris and Viva Aerobus.

But, for JetBlue, the advantage of this interline agreement is not on the international route map of Interjet. Actually, JetBlue flies to the same international destinations as Interjet, except for Canada and El Salvador. What JetBlue is getting into is the Mexican domestic market.

Interjet offers routes to 32 destinations within Mexico, according to its website. For JetBlue, this is an opportunity to remain in the Mexican market. Last October, the airline became the third, after Alaska Airlines and Southwest to suspend its service to Mexico City. This was supposed to happen at some point during January 2020. Nevertheless, by 31st January, the Mexican capital still appeared on the route map of the low-cost American airline.

JetBlue
Now JetBlue has over 30 destinations in Mexico. Photo: Tomás del Coro via Wikimedia

Connecting the world without long-haul flights

This is not the first interline agreement of Interjet. Last year, the carrier announced a similar agreement with Emirates. This enabled the Mexican carrier to offer the world of destinations operated by the Emirati airline.

Although an interline agreement is the most basic form of partnership, it has suited well for Interjet, as it is not a part of any airline group worldwide.

Interjet has commercial agreements with other airlines such as Iberia, American Airlines, Qatar Airways, Alitalia, LATAM, British Airways, Japan Airlines, Lufthansa, ANA, Eva Air, Hainan Airlines, Air Canada and Hahn Air.

“With this kind of action we strengthen our presence on the international market, offering more destinations,” said Julio Gamero, Interjet’s CCO.

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