Mexico and the United Kingdom consider renewing their air services agreement

Today, Mexico and the United Kingdom expressed their interest in reaching a new bilateral agreement on air services to replace the existing agreement in place since 1989, reported the Mexican Secretariat of Communications and Transportation (SCT).

This interest in reaching a new agreement was expressed in a meeting of the Secretary of the SCT, Gerardo Ruiz Esparza, with British officials "with the purpose of strengthening and promoting air connectivity between our nations”, said a bulletin from the Secretariat.

The new agreement "will include more flexible provisions such as multiple in-country destination, additional flight freedoms and aircraft capacity, as well as a table of point-to-point open routes", it said.

Currently, five airlines operate between Mexico and the United Kingdom, and statistics show that from 2012 to 2017, passenger air transport has had an annual growth of 12.3% and cargo of 25.3%, said the Secretariat.

The Thomson Fly airline currently operates between both nations (with 44.6% of total passengers), British Airways (with 19.4%), Thomas Cook (with 17%), Aeromexico (with 10.9%) and Virgin Atlantic Airways (with 8.1%).

With Ruiz Esparza in the meeting were the Undersecretary of Transportation, Yuriria Mascott, and the General Director of Grupo Aeroportuario de Ciudad de México, Federico Patiño.

The British delegation included the British Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy, Baroness Bonham Carter; the Undersecretary of State for Transport, Baroness Sugg; the United Kingdom's Ambassador to Mexico, Duncan Taylor, and various Trade and Investment officials from the United Kingdom.