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Business Travelers Have New Mexico City Option at Baltimore/ Washington International

Posted on: Thursday, 6 October 2005, 21:00 CDT

By Dori Berman

Efforts by the Maryland Aviation Administration to secure more international carriers at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport have again paid off.

The Board of Public Works yesterday approved the contract that will allow Mexicana Airlines to lease space and operate at the airport. The airline, Mexico's largest, will begin running daily nonstop flights to Mexico City in December.

Officials expect the addition will bring the state more than $50 million annually in tourism and travel dollars, and funds the airline will spend on hotels and meals for crew members. The new service will mostly accommodate business travelers, according to Jonathan Dean, a spokesman for the aviation administration.

Mexicana's arrival at the airport follows British Airways' upgrade earlier this year of its business class travel service offered through BWI. The upgrade made major news, since BWI tends to cater more to lower cost travel, with discount airline Southwest the airport's largest carrier.

BWI is very aggressive in marketing itself, Dean said. The airport continues to work with a number of additional international carriers.

Currently, six international carriers operate out of the Gov. William Donald Schaefer International Terminal. Dean could not say which additional airlines the aviation administration is trying to lure. No other airline currently flying from BWI offers direct service to Mexico City.

Mexicana has a presence at 13 other destinations in the United States. Other than New York and Miami, the airline operates mostly to and from cities in the western region of the country. The news that Mexicana chose Baltimore, instead of another city in the region, has some officials feeling hopeful.

At the public works meeting yesterday, Treasurer Nancy Kopp said she was happy to hear of the addition to what some think is a languishing international travel market at BWI.

A number of us have been concerned about the international pier for some time, she said. In an interview following the meeting she added, I don't think it's any secret that the international travel from and to BWI has not been at the level that we had hoped, for a variety of reasons.

Kopp said she is confident Baltimore has the market to support more international flights.

I think people more and more are seeing Baltimore as a logical entry point both for the Baltimore and Maryland area and for the District of Columbia, she said. We can take some planes that [Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport] can't, and that ought to be an advantage.

The state's travel statistics seem to support the theory. Business travel to the state increased more than 13 percent from 2003 to 2004.

Mexicana is already selling tickets for flights to and from BWI. A discounted fare -$319 for a round trip ticket-will be available through the end of October.

Source: The Daily Record (Baltimore)

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