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 force airlines 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 nations and gave home airways an unfair benefit. Mexico is the highest international vacation spot for Individuals with greater than 40 million passengers flying there final yr.
“Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg intentionally allowed Mexico to interrupt our bilateral aviation settlement,” Duffy mentioned of the earlier administration. “That ends in the present day. Let these actions function a warning to any nation who thinks it might probably make the most of the U.S., our carriers, and our market. America First means preventing for the elemental 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 isn’t instantly clear how Duffy’s actions may have an effect on the broader trade war with Mexico and negotiations over tariffs. A spokesperson for Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum didn’t reply instantly to a request for a remark, and she or he didn’t point out the restrictions at an occasion Saturday.
Delta and Aeromexico have been preventing the Transportation Division’s efforts to finish their partnership that started in 2016 since early final yr. 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 annual shopper financial savings.
“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 vital 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 meant 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.
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Related Press author Amaranta Marentes in Mexico Metropolis contributed to this report.
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