The United States Department of Transportation (DOT) has approved the proposed transfer of two México City International slot pairs from Southwest Airlines (WN, Dallas Love Field) to VivaAerobus (VB, Monterrey Mariano Escobedo). The DOT confirmed the approval in a letter to both low-cost carriers issued on October 16.
As a condition for previously approving a joint venture agreement between Delta Air Lines (DL, Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson) and Aeroméxico (AM, México City International), the US DOT had forced the two carriers to give up slots at México City's airport to allow other carriers to increase their capacity between the Mexican capital's airport and the United States. The slots had been released in two phases for the timetable seasons starting in March 2017 and 2018.
In the second allocation, Southwest secured two slot pairs for operations starting from the end of March 2018. However, as it does intend to use them, it notified eligible carriers that these were available. Given VivaAeroBus has been the only carrier requesting the slot pairs from Southwest, and as it is not paying Southwest for the use of the slots, the transaction has now been approved by the US DOT.
VivaAeroBus currently operates four times weekly between Monterrey and Houston Intercontinental. It does not offer any other connectivity between Mexico and the United States but plans to launch new routes linking Guadalajara with Houston and Los Angeles International and Mexico City with Las Vegas in December 2017 as well as Cancún with Chicago O'Hare in February 2018.
In the slot release process, VivaAeroBus has already been allocated slots allowing it to launch operations from Mexico City to Las Vegas Harry Reid this year and to New York JFK in 2018. In its original application back in January of this year, it also requested slots for routes to Los Angeles International, San Antonio International, Oakland International, Houston Intercontinental and Chicago O'Hare.
