The manager believes that around Christmas there could be a further increase in frequencies with Mexico, without there being specific dates. By 2022, the airline’s strategy will lie in recovering the daily flights with which it started in the country, with no plans to fly to other Mexican cities.
Although both the domestic and international markets are recovering passengers rapidly (both were at 87% of pre-COVID-19 levels in July, according to data from the Federal Civil Aviation Agency), the Asian region has been the most affected.
Emirates and the Japanese company All Nippon Airways are the only Asian airlines operating in Mexico, which in recent years has seen the departure of other companies such as China Southern Airlines and Hainan Airlines. Until July, Asia had the largest drop in revenue in the international segment, with revenue per available seat-kilometer at -94.2% compared to 2019, according to data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
However, Emirates sees a high demand potential in Mexico due to the openness of the country, coupled with the attractiveness of beach destinations, while from Mexico it is also beginning to see a rebound in international travel.
“We are always evaluating demand in both directions, and Mexicans want to leave the country. Tour-operators want to restart their trips, and today they travel a lot to Barcelona, but also to other destinations through Dubai, such as Istanbul and Cairo, ”says Lantz.
The airline intends to take advantage of the agreement it recently signed with Aeromar to connect Emirates passengers to 10 destinations within Mexico and two to the United States, including cities such as Acapulco and Puerto Escondido.
Lantz recognizes that although this agreement will connect with 12 cities, it is limited by the Aeromar network, and the agreement previously signed with Interjet, which planned to connect with 55 destinations in 10 countries on the continent.
For now, Emirates’ strategy in Latin America will focus on its flights to Mexico City and Sao Paulo, as well as a recently inaugurated route to Miami.
“Before we used to fly to Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires and Santiago. Emirates has not yet announced its return to any of those three destinations, there are no definite dates, but in the long term we want to recover the entire network that we had before the pandemic, “says Lantz.” Right now we are operating 90% of the network that we had. We continue to fight to recover all destinations and that will depend on the restrictions that each country has ”.