TORONTO — AeroMexico’s new daily nonstop flight from Toronto to Mexico City is off to a good start. The first flight of the new service, which left Toronto earlier last week was overbooked, which the airline’s Chief Revenue Officer Anko van der Werff called “really fantastic news,” during an official launch event in Toronto.
“We come back today after an absence of about five years and I promise you this time we’ll stay.” He explained that offering clients more and better network connectivity is one of the airline’s most important goals.
The flights are on B737 aircraft, with 124 seats including 12 in Business Class. Flights depart Toronto (Terminal 3) at 8:30 a.m., arriving in Mexico City (Terminal 2) at 12:35 p.m. On the return, flights depart Mexico City at 1 a.m., arriving in Toronto at 6:46 a.m.
The new flight connects with AeroMexico services to Cancun, Guadalajara, Huatulco, Los Cabos, Monterrey, Puerto Vallarta among others in Mexico, as well as Bogota, Lima, El Salvador, Guatemala and others in Latin America.
“We’re looking at a very bright future,” said van der Werff. “AeroMexico has had the biggest investment in airline history in Mexico. We had an order for $11 billion worth of new aircraft, specifically 787s.” He said the growth plan of the last six months has included opening new routes to Managua, Rio de Janeiro, Medellin and Vancouver.
Panama will be added next week and Boston in June.
The Consul General for Mexico in Toronto, Mauricio Toussaint, noted that the launch announcement coincides with Cinco de Mayo (May 5) which commemorates the day in 1862 when the Mexican army defeated Napoleon III’s troops in Pueblo.
Toussaint said Canada’s relationship with Mexico has been growing very fast since NAFTA with a total trade of $22 billion per year. “By far Ontario is the most important Canadian province to Mexico. There is still room to expand our relationship.
“More than 650,000 Ontarians go to Mexico every year and we hope the Canadian government will implement a more flexible system next year, so we’re expecting more Mexicans coming to Canada.” He also stressed the importance of and focus on business development, and made reference to cultural and professional co-operation, and the 10,000 seasonal farm workers who travel from Mexico to Ontario each year.
