TORONTO — Interjet’s Toronto and Montreal flights to Mexico City and Cancun just started this summer (and its Vancouver flights began only a few weeks ago), and already the airline is seeing load factors of close to 70%. Interjet Director, Javier Porragas Torres, says “we’re doing good” but there’s still work to be done to promote the airline, and part of the push will come from Interjet’s sales team now heading out to travel agencies in the airline’s key Canadian markets.

Porragas Torres wants agents to know that Interjet fares are now in Sabre and Amadeus, and that access through Travelport (parent company of Galileo and Worldspan) “should be ready by early 2018”.

Speaking to Travelweek ahead of Interjet’s holiday event in Toronto last night, he added that agents can also make Interjet bookings through the website, with commissions paid using an electronic wallet system.

Interjet pays 4% on its air-only as well as vacation packages including air, hotel and ground transportation through Interjet Vacations.

Interjet launched year-round, non-stop scheduled service on Oct. 26 between YVR and the dual destinations of Mexico City (the airline’s head office and hub) and Cancun.

The airline jumped into the B.C. market with return fares starting at $519. The carrier bills itself not as a low-cost carrier, but as a value carrier. Interjet’s planes have all-leather seats throughout, with one cabin accommodating passengers on all three of the airline’s fares: Light, Optima and Priority. The carrier also uses primary airports in the cities it serves.

“We always respect the passenger – that is our key ingredient as to what we have to offer,” said Andres Martinez Reynoso, Interjet’s Marketing & PR Director, at the airline’s Toronto launch in July 2017. “The Canadian trade market is important to us.”

There’s even a women’s-only washroom onboard every Interjet plane. And in a move completely at odds with the current trend to packing as many passengers into an aircraft, Interjet took seats out, with an eye to passenger comfort. Interjet’s A320s carry 150 passengers, while most other airlines using A320s carry 180 passengers. The result is a 34” pitch. That makes a difference on a 4-hour-plus flight, says Porragas Torres.

Earlier this month Interjet reported record international passenger traffic for the Q3 2017, posting a 23% increase in passenger traffic compared with the same period last year.

The carrier is also still flying high on its TripAdvisor recognition as a 2017 Travelers’ Choice winner, for best airline in Mexico. The online travel giant’s annual survey of millions of global travellers recognized Interjet as top airline in Mexico for best value, customer service, legroom, comfort, food and beverage, check-in and boarding.

All of Interjet’s Canadian gateway flights, from Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver to Mexico City’s Aeropuerto Internacional Benito Juárez, as well as to Cancun International Airport, operate four times weekly.

Priority fare passengers get two checked bags and Optima fare passengers, one checked bag. Light fare passengers can bring carry-on. Priority fare passengers are seated in the first two rows of the aircraft and also get priority boarding.