Now that Aeromexico has six weekly nonstop flights between New Orleans and Mexico City, will leisure travel south of the border see a significant increase?
Jim Pratt, with Eagle Travel, doesn't see much of a benefit for local travel agents or tourists. "The aircraft, maximum, can hold fifty people and it goes down there six days a week. So I don't think that that's set up to be a leisure instigator."
"I see this flight as a commercial success...a business success," says Pratt. He sees American businessmen using the flights to conduct business. And, he envisions Mexican businessmen doing the same here...or, perhaps residents coming here for medical treatment.
Listen to Don Ames' conversation with Pratt:
Pratt acknowledges there will be some leisure travelers who'll fly to Mexico City. "But it's certainly not going to exist on the scale that people flock to Cancun or Cozumel or Belize or places like that," says Pratt. A trip to the Caribbean is around $800 per ticket whereas Mexico City is in the $500 per ticket range.
However, he feels that business may grow if the flights prove popular. He'd like to see a change in the itinerary and have the flights continue to Cabo San Lucas, rather than Honduras.
Southeastern Louisiana has the fastest growing Hispanic population in the United States, with almost 250,000 Latino residents including more than 80,000 Hondurans.
The two-hour direct flights to Mexico City in the center of the country may open up travel to cities on the west coast of Mexico. A trip to Puerto Vallarta on Mexico's Pacific coast may be cheaper than it would have been without a direct flight to Mexico City.
Aeromexico is New Orleans' first international flight service since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, but is no stranger, having operated here years ago.
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