Mexico’s Low-Cost Airline Merger Raises Antitrust Fears

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The first few years of the millennium were a dream for Mexican air travelers on a budget. The country’s airspace, long dominated by legacy carriers Grupo Aeroméxico SAB and Grupo Mexicana de Aviación, was inundated with a flurry of low-cost airlines in 2005 and 2006, with the likes of Interjet, Viva Aerobús and Volaris all competing to sell primarily domestic airfare for only slightly more than the price of a bus ticket. Travel on local routes proliferated, and air travel was quickly transformed from a luxury for deep-pocket elites into a nearly everyday indulgence.

Today, after several ...