Southwest Airlines (WN, Dallas Love Field) seems to have emerged as the winner of a battle over traffic rights for scheduled services between Chicago and Cancún that have become available as a result of the suspension of all services by Apple Vacations subsidiary USA3000 Airlines (Philadelphia International) earlier this year. Southwest subsidiary AirTran Airways (Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson) and Frontier Airlines (F9, Denver International) had both applied for the traffic rights for the route where only three US carriers are allowed to operate according to the bilateral agreement between the US and Mexico. The route has been awarded to AirTran now by the Department of Transportation. Frontier had planned to operate on the route for Apple Vacations as it does now on many other routes between the US and Mexico but to sell some seats directly to the public requiring traffic rights to do so.