Mayer

It is more likely that they are under the control of the lessors. Companies which manage the airports usually provide storage services but aren't the actual owners of the aircraft. No SC Chow, it is actually Victorville, in California's Desert. Best regards.

Liam, thanks for clearing the status of VH-SWO up. While I read about a month ago the difficult financial situation faced by Solomon Air, I was not aware (I even hoped it would not happen, considering their beautiful livery) that it had definitively stopped operating the E170. Thanks.

Dear S V Choong, Two ex-Hong Kong Express E170s went to Australian operators: Hong Kong Express B-KXA is now VH-SWO, flying for Solomon Airlines in behalf of SkyAirWorld Hong Kong Express B-KXB is now VH-ANO, flying for Airnorth The other two E170s went to Kenya Airways: Hong Kong Express B-KXC is now 5Y-KYK Hong Kong Express B-KXD is now 5Y-KYJ Hope you find it useful. You can find detailed information on Embraer jets in this Forum: http://www.embjets.net/forum/index.php

Hi everyone... here's the information from Skyliner.de about this 737: Boeing 737-46J 28038 2794 9M-MQP Malaysia Airlines at ETNA 02 apr07 with titl, basic AB cs ex N380BG The plane was at Ahlhorn, Germany, at the time of the picture. Best regards.

Small airline but growing fast Andrew: in its first year of operations it reportedly carried 1 million passengers (figure to be confirmed). At the end of 2006, Volaris had 6 Airbus A319 aircraft, on January 2007 it received two more and will have a total of 14 by year's end (that is, eight A319 will be delivered to this Mexican airline throughout the year). Volaris is also opening new destinations, for instance they have opened 4 new routes in 2007 and will start other five new routes during March-April. Best regards.

Hey Pieter, thanks for posting Mexicana's information! Hi Tamizi! Even thought the news are excellent, the comment is still very vague. We have heard a lot of rumours and are looking forward to receiving detailed information as for type of planes and number per type. The majority of opinions here at Mexico tend to say Mexicana will continue buying Airbus aircraft for short-to-medium routes (A318, A319, A320, which it currently operates, and perhaps they will add A321), while for the long-haul fleet they are assessing the A330 and A340, but from a time on it has been said that the Boeing 777 is being considered too... go figure (Mexicana uses a pair of 767s for their longest routes, mainly to Argentina). As for the new planes, it seems at first that 14 of those 40 would be firm orders, and the remainder would be options. Please note Mexicana is not a LCC, but a legacy airline; actually, it is the oldest Mexican airline and one of the oldest in the world. As soon as more information is released I will keep you informed. Best regards.

According to The Jakarta Post.com, the plane is PK-KKW: Boeing 737-4Q8 C/n 24070/1665 Ex G-BNNL, N112TR, EI-CXH, YU-AOO, N240LF, YU-AOO Delivered to Adam Air 17.12.05

The Air Madrid issue turned out to be a very big problem for at least 1,200 Mexicans who already had bought their tickets, either one way or round trips. Aeromexico and Lufhtansa are offering their support to these stranded passengers, charging special, reduced fares. Air Madrid used to fly to Toluca airport; I understand they had good passenger loads, specially at the beginning, but in recent times delays were very frequent. Too bad!

Hey Pieter! I'm glad to know you are eager to plan a trip to Mexico... I hope you come soon! I'm from Mexico City but currently living at Aguascalientes, a city to the west-northwest of our capital city. A flight from Aguascalientes to Mexico City takes around 45 minutes, while it takes 6 hours on bus. Please feel free to ask any questions or information you may need, I would gladly help you As I mentioned before, Mexican Aviation is entering to a very interesting stage, with lots of new competition from Low-cost carriers, the first direct trip to Asia by a Mexican Airline (Aeromexico, flying Mexico-Tijuana-Narita), and more people flying than ever before. Hope you get to see it here!

Fortunately, only a "plane scare", according to CNN. The flight number was BA209 and the aircraft type a Boeing 747. It seems the plane somehow missed a turn after landing and struck runway lights, but it was pushed back into the runway, and it taxied to the gate, where passengers disembarked with no problems. Thank God, a scare only.

Hello again. A friend of mine posted interesting information today in a Mexican Aviation Forum, regarding MH flights between MEX-LAX and Asia. According to his data, 183 thousand PAX were transported to/from MEX by MH between 1992 and 1996. 79% of the passengers flew the MEX-LAX-MEX route and only 21% continued to or came from Asia (TPE-KUL). Considering these figures, Mexican and American airlines complained to the government and... well, the rest is history. Good day.

Hi Keith T, this action stands to reason: Star Alliance nowadays is the only major alliance with no Latin American carrier (SkyTeam has Aeromexico, LAN is member of oneworld). However, I imagine the entrance of the "new" Varig would take some time. Best regards.

It is Pieter!!! Besides a lot of photos in sites such as Airliners.net or jetphotos, I recommed you to visit the photo section of the following forum: http://www.fsmex.com/fotos.php Or the ones at Aviation Photography of Mexico: http://www.apm-group.com.mx/galeria.htm Even better if you are able to travel to our country and check for yourself our air traffic Regards.

Hi, I'm a relatively new member in the Forum and would like to take up this topic originally posted back in July by Pieter. VivaAerobus indeed started its operations in 2006, however the exact date wasn't October but November 30th. The airline currently flies to 10 destinations from their base at Monterrey, and expects to open 5 new routes on January 1st, 2007 (no US cities for the time being). Viva's start was not uneventful: they were supposed to have a pair of Boeing 737-300 aircraft from day one, however the second one which arrived to Mexico had all kind of customs and paperwork problems, leaving the airline with only one plane, thus forcing Viva to contract two Mexican charter airlines in order to cover all of their flights. Even this decision wasn't free of trouble: Viva's 737 jets carry 148 PAX but the plane of one of the charter airlines (Magnicharters, a 737-200) carries 109 PAX... there were a few cases -when the flights were full or almost full- in which a number of passengers were not able to board, due to the reduced capacity of the leased planes (compared to Viva's capacity). Fortunately this issue has already been solved and Viva is currently using both of their 737; according to some persons who work there, they are having an excellent holiday period and their passenger loads have been around 100% during these final weeks of the year. As a side note, at the moment we have six low-cost carriers here at Mexico: besides the above mentioned (Volaris, Click, Interjet, VivaAerobus), Aerolíneas Mesoamericanas (ALMA) and AVolar are also flying from their bases at Guadalajara and Tijuana airports, respectively. Finally, it seems the GOL Mexico project is not going to start anytime soon. Best regards from Mexico.

Hey Keith T! You are quite right on your comment on Oneworld's presence in South America; let's see if Star Alliance has an answer to this new situation. The very last paragraph of the news you cited states: In parallel the alliance is exploring various options to secure a wider presence in the region. I have read about two possibilites on this issue: 1. The entrance of the "new" Varig to Star Alliance, which of course would take some time. 2. An airline such as Aerolineas Argentinas joining Star Alliance (but nothing confirmed up to now). Have a nice day.

Hey Seth! Thanks for welcoming me to the Forum! I must confess I'm not much aware of Central America aviation issues (i.e., Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica...) but rather on Mexican aviation topics. As for your question on JL being interested in LAX-MEX-LAX, I was not aware of this news. Is it something you recently heard of? The latest information I knew is that JL and Mexicana Airlines (MX) agreed to expand their code share partnership, in such a way that by the end of March 2007, the airlines will code share on flights operated by MX that fly from Mexico City to Vancouver, and on flights departing Vancouver for Tokyo operated by JL. Besides, JL offers a daily service between Tokyo and Mexico City routed via Los Angeles (i.e., connecting with a MX flight at LAX). Perhaps this is the information you knew Seth? JL flies 2X a week MEX-YVR-NRT, but for the first time they are facing competition, since Aeromexico (AM) started Mexico-Tijuana-Tokio flights on November 16th. AM flies 2X too, using Boeing 777 equipment. It is my understanding that passenger load factors started slow but have been improving lately (40-50%); however, it is worthy to note that the cargo transported between Tijuana and Tokio is a pivotal factor in AM operations, considering there is a sizeable number of Japanese firms (as well as foreign direct investment) in Baja California, the state where Tijuana is located (only Mexico City has more Japanese firms, Baja California is ranked in second place). I really hope this route works out for Aeromexico! I look forward to sharing ideas and comments with you and all of the MW Forum members. Best regards from Mexico.

Hello Isaac, Andrew, kandiah. Thanks a lot for your comments and replies. I read MH did very well on the LAX-MEX route when operating it years ago. It seems that it was flying full on the sector, but not to TPE and KUL, then it was a very strong competition for the airlines flying the route at the time (Aeromexico, Mexicana, Delta and United). The rest of the story is that Malaysian discontinued the route after the Government discontinued the 5th freedom rights on the LAX - MEX portion. It is important to note that MEX-LAX is the most important route from Mexico to any foreign country, in terms of passengers transported. Almost 900,000 PAX flew the route during year 2005. Currently, four airlines operate MEX-LAX: Aeromexico, Mexicana, Alaska and United. Once again thanks for your help and best regards from Mexico.

Thanks a lot for your welcome Andrew! I had no idea I'm the first member from Mexico, but I definitely think this is a very interesting website to learn airline news not only from Malaysia and Asia, but from all the world, considering we live in such a globalized place. Thanks for your reply -as well as KK Lee's-, I'm sure Mexico is not an attractive destination for MH, but I am trying to research: by any chance do you remember when Malaysia Airlines started/ceased operations at Mexico? I'm talking about 13, 15 years ago, but I do not have -and am interested- in the exact dates. A second question is: what was the frequency of those MH flights? I know I'm making difficult questions since they belong to time ago, but any help would be greatly appreciated. Best regards from Mexico!

Hello! Best regards from Mexico; this is my first post here, however I have been reading the topics for a while (thus I'm passing from passive reader to active member ) I am sorry if I'm "resurrecting" this old topic but I think it's a good place for my questions, since the very first member asked why Malaysian stopped flying to Mexico. I wonder not why, but when did Malaysia cancelled operations at Mexico? Does anyone here remember for how long did MH flew to Mexico, as well as the frequency of their flights? I do remember the route was MEX-LAX-TPE-KUL, and as it was previously noted in this topic, the flights were operated by 747-400. Finally, congratulations to all the people related to malaysianwings website, you are doing a very nice and interesting job! Thanks in advance for your help.