American Airlines (AA, Dallas/Fort Worth) has secured final approval from the US Department of Transportation (DOT) to proceed with the launch of double-daily return Los Angeles International-México City International flights to be operated on-board B737-800 aircraft. American obtained the service's route authority via a transfer from Alaska Airlines (AS, Seattle Tacoma International), which will maintain a presence on the route albeit via codeshare.
In its attempt to block the transfer, Delta Air Lines (DL, Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson) said the move would disadvantage new carriers, such as itself, that are attempting to enter the Los Angeles market given American's already dominant position there. It had also sought exemption authority to operate the route 3x daily thus requesting the DOT to open a route proceeding to determine which of the two services would prove to be more in the "public interest".
The DOT rejected the requests on the grounds that the AA/Alaska tie up would be an improvement on Alaskan Airlines' existing daily service while allowing it to retain its presence via a codeshare. The DOT added that the switch will also encourage competition with other carriers on the route such as United Airlines (UA, Chicago O'Hare) as well as Aeroméxico (AM, México City International) (with which Delta codeshares) and Volaris (Y4, México City International).
The flight's launch, originally scheduled for June 6, has now been postponed to September.
