AA cuts back on Mexico Flying

[eolesen]

Cutting daily round trips to 31 flights from 42 starting Friday and running through June 10.

DFW-MEX flying cut in half from 4x to 2x (-2)
MIA-MEX cut from 3x to 2x (-1)

DFW-CUN goes from 4x to 3x (-1)
MIA-CUN goes from 5x to 4x (-1)

DFW-MTY goes from 4x to 2x (-2)
DFW-GDL goes from 1+1 Eagle to 2x Eagle
DFW-PVR unchanged
DFW-SJD goes from 3x to 2x (-1)

I'm guessing that the rest of the cuts are to the Eagle destinations.

 

[FWAAA]

Just what the Mexican economy needs: fewer tourists. Other airlines have chopped their Mexico schedules by half, so the AA cuts don't seem as draconian.

Here's an article from today discussing the havoc the imaginary pandemic has wreaked on the Mexican economy:

Flu epidemic has cost Mexico billions

MEXICO CITY (AFP) – Mexico said on Tuesday the swine flu epidemic had ravaged the country's vital tourism industry and cost its economy billions as it looked to reopen shuttered businesses after a five-day shutdown.

Finance Minister Agustin Carstens said the impact of had been devastating for tourism and put the cost at "close to 0.3 percent" of GDP or 2.3 billion dollars (1.7 billion euros).

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/healthfluworld...Gljb2ZsdWhhcw--

Mexico tries to restart economy after flu shutdown:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Mexico-tries...set=&ccode=

Finally, the idiots at the CDC are no longer advising that US schools be closed:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090505/ap_on_...ine_flu_schools

The cynic in me thinks that those who manage epidemics and pandemics for a living (the CDC and the WHO) want one so bad they can taste it. So we got one.

 

[eolesen]

*Never* let a good crisis go to waste...

 

[FrugalFlyerv2.0]

The cynic in me thinks that those who manage epidemics and pandemics for a living (the CDC and the WHO) want one so bad they can taste it. So we got one.

I think the CDC acted more or less accordingly. The figure-heads are know-nothing appointees but the worker bees are not that dumb.

Some local government actions not so smart. Example from my area: announcing the closure of a school for 2 weeks.
Local 'leaders' look very intelectual, pro-active and progressive for the TV stations.
High 5's all around.
Only 2 days later there is a low key announcement (by I. M. Nobody official) that school is now re-open, it was a false alarm.

Mainstream media: this was a gold mine. They've got great headlines and lead-ins for their newscasts.
And they looked smart talking about H1N1 (although they had no idea what it means / no way they could explain it in plain English).

More importantly local businesses made money. My employer installed alcohol hand sanitation stations all over the place.
Saw people stocking up (really really really stocking up) on dis-infecting wipes - especially ones with the "Kills Influenza Virus" label.

 

[Bob Owens]

Here's an article from today discussing the havoc the imaginary pandemic has wreaked on the Mexican economy:

No way, the corporate media would never put out inaccurate information, that would be unethical! :blink:

 

[MAH4546]

AA's cuts have not been as large because AA relies more heavily on ethnic traffic than other carriers. Miami-Cancun has lots of tourists, for example, but it is also a very important ethnic route.

 

[eolesen]

I also suspect AA's cuts were not as large because MX hasn't joined up with oneworld yet (happens later this year), so they can't afford to lose the mileage whores or the revenue. DL and CO could afford to cut back more because AeroMexico (part of Skyteam) was there to pick up the slack and IIRC, they have revenue sharing agreements, full mileage accrual and full elite credit regardless of the carrier flown...

Tourism there is going to take a while to recover. It was already down because of the economy, but people are going to be thinking twice about vacationing in the second/third world... AS just announced a bunch of new flying (including Hawaii from OAK), presumably using aircraft now sitting idle from the Mexico pulldown.

Even Royal Caribbean and Carnival are sticking with plans to shift their Mexican Riviera cruises which normally go from LAX/SAN to ACA/SJD/MZT/PVR. Now they're leaving SAN/LAX and heading north to SFO, SEA, and a few other ports in Oregon & Washington thru mid-June.

 

[JS]

Kind of odd that the flu, which killed a few hundred, is affecting traffic much more than the war on drugs, which has killed thousands in Mexico. :blink: