Southwest Airlines is now selling Mexico through a partnership with Mexican low cost carrier Volaris said the company in a blog post Friday. The partnership, which was announced in the fall of 2008, came to fruition at early Friday morning when the booking link was activated and destinations in Mexico were added to southwest.com for the first time. Service will begin on December 1 to five destinations in Mexico served by Volaris: Cancun, Guadalajara, Morelia, Toluca, and Zacatecas. Passengers will connect to Volaris flights to these destinations from Southwest Airlines flights arriving in San Jose, Los Angeles, and Oakland.
The new service, termed International Connect, differs from a traditional codeshare in that neither airline places it's code on the flights of the other. Volaris services sold by Southwest Airlines are marketed as Volaris flights, and the carriers do not file through fares between the two points in the itinerary. Volaris tickets are issued by Volaris, and Southwest tickets are issued by Southwest. Passengers continue to check-in with each carrier separately, and each airline maintains their own policies and procedures, however passenger baggage is checked through to their final destination.
Volaris became Mexico's second largest carrier overnight when Mexicana ceased operations in August. Mexican carriers are currently not allowed to increase or expand service in the United States due to the country's aviation safety oversight classification Category II. The classification also affects the ability of Mexican airlines to forge marketing partnerships such as codeshare agreements with US airlines. Some US carriers have removed their code from their Mexican partner carriers until Mexico is reclassified as Category I. The agreement between Volaris and Southwest Airlines is unaffected because the carriers do not sell tickets on each other's services.
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