WASHINGTON — The Trump administration imposed new restrictions Saturday on flights from Mexico and threatened to finish a longstanding partnership between Delta Air Strains and Aeromexico in response to limits the Mexican authorities positioned on passenger and cargo flights into Mexico Metropolis a number of years in the past.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy mentioned Mexico’s actions to drive airways to maneuver out of the primary Benito Juarez Worldwide Airport to the newer Felipe Angeles Worldwide Airport greater than 30 miles away violated a commerce settlement between the 2 international locations and gave home airways an unfair benefit. Mexico is the highest overseas vacation spot for People with greater than 40 million passengers flying there final 12 months.
“Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg intentionally allowed Mexico to interrupt our bilateral aviation settlement,” Duffy mentioned, referring to the earlier president and his transportation secretary. “That ends at present. Let these actions function a warning to any nation who thinks it could possibly reap the benefits of the U.S., our carriers, and our market. America First means preventing for the basic precept of equity.”
All Mexican passenger, cargo and constitution airways will now be required to submit their schedules to the Transportation Division and search authorities approval of their flights till Duffy is happy with the way in which Mexico is treating U.S. airways.
It is not instantly clear how Duffy’s actions may have an effect on the broader commerce struggle with Mexico and negotiations over tariffs. A spokesperson for Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum did not reply instantly to a request for remark. Sheinbaum did not point out the brand new restrictions throughout both of her two talking occasions on Saturday.
Delta and Aeromexico have been preventing the Transportation Division’s efforts to finish their partnership that started in 2016 since early final 12 months. The airways have argued that it isn’t honest to punish them for the Mexican authorities’s actions, and so they mentioned ending their settlement would jeopardize almost two dozen routes and $800 million in advantages to each international locations’ economies that come from tourism spending and jobs.
“The U.S. Division of Transportation’s tentative proposal to terminate its approval of the strategic and pro-competitive partnership between Delta and Aeromexico would trigger important hurt to customers touring between the U.S. and Mexico, in addition to U.S. jobs, communities, and transborder competitors,” Delta mentioned in a press release.
Aeromexico’s press workplace mentioned it was reviewing the order and supposed to current a joint response with Delta within the coming days.
However the order terminating approval of the settlement between the airways would not take impact till October, and the airways are more likely to proceed preventing that call.
The airways mentioned in a earlier submitting preventing the order that it believes the lack of direct flights would immediate over 140,000 American vacationers and almost 90,000 Mexican vacationers to not go to the opposite nation and damage the economies of each international locations with the lack of their spending.
Related Press author Amaranta Marentes in Mexico Metropolis contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2025 by The Related Press. All Rights Reserved.
