Southwest Airlines is dropping its service to Mexico City from its hub at Houston Hobby Airport, a spokesperson for the airline has confirmed to Travel Agent. Houston is the only city currently offering nonstop service to Mexico City in Southwest's Latin America route network.
Southwest made the announcement in its most recent earnings call, when CEO Gary Kelly reported that the route would end March 31. During the call Kelly said that the airline was focusing on leisure destinations, while Mexico City had been more of a business travel market.
“Better performing destinations for us right now are the leisure destinations,” Kelly said. “Mexico City was showing very nice improvement. It's much more of a business market. And given where we are right now we just have better business opportunities in terms of deploying that capacity. We'd love for us to be back in Mexico City one of these days. We are working on better commercial capabilities in terms of marketing in foreign countries, accepting foreign currency. All of those things in our future would support service to a place like Mexico City better than what we can today. We just have better alternatives and, as I said, hopefully we'll be back in Mexico City one of these days. Our priority right now obviously is adding Hawaii service.”
Southwest serves Mexico City from Houston Hobby four times daily. All told, the airline serves Mexico from a total of 21 peak and seasonal cities in the United States, with its most recent addition being new service between Chicago Midway and San Jose del Cabo.
Related Stories
Air Travel: New Flights to St. Kitts, Porto-Newark Service Tripled
777X: The Gigantic Plane That Could Change Flying Forever Is Nearly Here
Travel Leaders Issues Tips for Traveling During Winter Storms
Norwegian Scraps Free Airport Lounge Access for Premium Passengers