It’s been a rough time for tourism in Mexico. Americans have always been a little nervous about “Montezuma’s revenge,” and increasing drug war crime stories have made many others skittish about travel to the country.
And to be fair, tourist towns like Tijuana and Acapulco have seen an increase in violence, but other popular destinations, Cancun, Puerto Vallarta and Cabo San Lucas, have been almost unaffected. And Mexican beaches, have been unaffected, so far, by the Gulf Oil spill.
But now, there’s more bad news: Federal Aviation Administration has said Mexico “does not meet the international air carrier safety standards and has been downgraded,” from Category 1 to Category 2.
What this translates to is that the FAA is not saying flying to Mexico is unsafe, but that the country’s airlines, including Aeromexico and Mexicana don’t meet international standards.
The FAA has also said that Mexico has made significant improvements in safety standards recently, but it isn’t enough to fully comply with the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization).
What this means that that while the Mexican airlines can continue to fly routes to the U.S., they cannot start any new routes. More critically, they must stop all code-shares with American carriers.
While there have not been any serious accidents that caused the downgrade, the FAA remains concerned – one issue, for example, is Mexico’s relatively small number of safety inspectors.
So what does this mean for travelers? In some cases, nothing, but any passenger ticketed on a code-share flight to Mexico should check with their agent or airline to make sure nothing has been canceled.
Already, you cannot book a American code-share on Mexicana anytime in the near future, or a Delta code-share on AeroMexico, for examples.
In addition, Mexicana was already facing financial issues which means they are canceling some flights. Without the code-share option, they have few choices for protecting passengers.
In our office, one agent had a family of seven ticketed to Zihuatanejo this week for a Club Med trip booked last March. Mexicana canceled a flight Monday, and couldn’t provide them with any alternative.
The airline did offer a full refund, but last minute fares on any other carrier were over $200 a person higher. (Which our agency will try to work out with Mexicana later but in the short run, we had no chose but to take the available flights.)
We haven’t had any clients canceled on ticketed code-share flights yet, but in summer, Mexico is not that popular a destination.
As an optimist (you have to be in this business), I can only hope the situation is remedied before the holidays and winter high season.
In the meantime, American travelers to Mexico might want to consider staying with U.S. carriers. Or at least avoiding any code-shares that are still bookable. (In our system, most code-shares for the next week are zeroed out, but they are still showing later in the year.)
And for anyone already ticketed, again, reconfirm, reconfirm, reconfirm. Now and again closer to your flight.mexico
Janice Hough is a California-based travel agent a travel blogger and a part-time comedy writer. A frequent flier herself, she’s been doing battle with airlines, hotels, and other travel companies for over three decades. Besides writing for Travelers United, Janice has a humor blog at Leftcoastsportsbabe.com (Warning, the political and sports humor therein does not represent the views of anyone but herself.)
