[QUOTE=Capt AWACS;3258078]
The US Mexican bilateral air agreement only allows 2 airlines from each country to fly between most cities in each country so Viva could only choose San Antonio or Austin as Dallas and Houston are full.
What do you mean Houston is full? We have Ellington... And why is this aggrement enacted? We need more airlines between Mexico and USA, this is so clear and obvious.
Ellington field has a small terminal, CO Express used it for years with hop flights to IAH. IN Fact Houston was the only US city with intra city limit flights on fixed wing aircraft, for nearly Two decades.
Guys in Ellington told me that if any company approaches them with a promise of terminal they will not charge a dime per customer. They also said Viva did not approach them.
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Here is what I do not understand. The airline industry in Mexico is exploding. There are almost 15 airline companies in Mexico at this moment. Once they got familiar with the business and make profits, they will start looking new destinations to expand business and make more money. US is the first destination that comes into mind and Houston and LA are the 2 cities that they will want to fly first for obvious reasons.
First being the huge Latin American population who would use this service to get to Mexico or use Mexican airports to hop to other southern home countries.
Secondly, population of cities in Texas, California, Arizona and Nevada are literally exploding, this is just a small airline company should be looking for. Not a city like Detorit, losing population.
Third, you can fly from numerous tiny cities in the north and west to Mexico for dirt cheap whenever there is sale. Just an example is Sipirit Air and another one is Airtran and many others. They have sales as low as $5-$10 and even you add the tax, the round trip cost less than 100 bucks. There are no such airlines in the southern cities.
Fourth, caribbean countries are so close to both mexico and US, this will be an opportunity for airlines flying between US and mexico because it is so close to the route.
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One day this vacuum will be filled. I still can not believe that there is an aggreement that restricts number of airlines flying between US and Mexico. It takes only 2 hrs and 15 minutes to fly from Houston to Cancun and yet there is only one or two airlines flying and cheapest is $500. This is crazy. This should not happen in a country praising itself all the time with free enterprise and competition. Something is definitely wrong in here.
Take a look at any vacation package deals from Dallas and Houston to Mexico and you will notice that Dallas is by far cheaper than Houston. I wonder why. Something is really wrong with airline services from Houston. What makes Dallas cheaper than us to a destination which Houston is closer.
Gotta hate continental
