Pilottim747 From United States of America, joined Jul 2001, 1607 posts, RR: 5 Posted (8 years 12 months 4 days 4 hours ago) and read 1749 times:
In a Star Tribune article from today (Champion Air seek to expand -- May 22, 2004), it says that Champion Air wants to start scheduled service to Mexico. The charter airline has applied to the US DOT to start scheduled service to Mexico from the US. Routes from MSP to Mexico are included in the application (the article only names MSP-MZT specifically). However, also DEN-PVR, DFW-CZM, and STL-CUN are also named.
Mariner From New Zealand, joined Nov 2001, 22707 posts, RR: 88 Reply 1, posted (8 years 12 months 3 days 21 hours ago) and read 1657 times:
Not much more info, but the applications have helped stir up a hornet's nest.
Remember that only two US airlines can service and city pair between the US and Mexico.
It began when UAL applied for DEN/CUN, to start in June. Both Allegiant and Champion also applied for the route.
Then Frontier applied for 3 routes - SLC/CUN, MCI/CUN and STL/CUN, to start July 3.
The first two were not challenged, but both Champion and USA 3000 wanted STL/CUN. Champion has a reasonable case, if only because I think they put their application in first.
It all hit the fan when UAL applied for DEN/PVR (for Ted) and others. Both Champion and Allegiant challenged it.
Since then, the DOT has only approved the unchallenged routes - Frontier's SLC/CUN and MCI/CUN.
All the contested routes are still up in the air, and the DOT hasn't (publicly) given any clue as to when they will make the decisions.
Frontier has pushed back the start date for STL/CUN, and according to FATFlyer, UAL has pushed back the start date for DEN/CUN.
Pilottim747 From United States of America, joined Jul 2001, 1607 posts, RR: 5 Reply 2, posted (8 years 12 months 3 days 14 hours ago) and read 1533 times:
Is there a place to see all the routes that have been applied for? I looked around the USDOT website for a little but had no luck.
pilottim747
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