Frontier Airlines (F9, Denver International) and Volaris (Y4, México City International) have signed a code-share agreement which, subject to regulatory approval, will lead to the two LCCs establishing a cross-border partnership between the United States and Mexico.
The airlines plan to launch sales of tickets under the code-share deal in Spring 2018. The deal will cover the full network of each of the airlines.
"We estimate that our partnership will add around 20 new destinations to our network and 80 new routes between both Mexico and the United States," Volaris CEO Enrique Beltranena said.
The agreement is the world's first code-share between two ultra-low-cost carriers.
Frontier Airlines is a privately-held company fully owned by Indigo Partners, a fund which also holds a stake of undisclosed size in Volaris.
According to the ch-aviation capacity module, the American LCC currently operates 12 routes between the US and Mexico, serving three destinations in the latter county: Cancún, Puerto Vallarta, and San José Cabo. For its part, Volaris operates as many as 59 routes to a total of 23 cities in the US, including Frontier's main bases at Denver International, Orlando International, and Las Vegas Harry Reid. There is no overlap between the carrier's networks.
Both carriers operate Airbus-only fleets and are set to benefit from the order for 430 A320neo Family aircraft firmed by Indigo Partners in December 2017. Frontier will receive a total of 134 new aircraft from this batch, while Volaris will take delivery of eighty twinjets.
