Qatar Airways is planning to operate a fifth freedom route between Doha and Mexico City, with a stop in Milan, Italy. While the flight is far from a done deal, as the Qatar Embassy in Mexico told Simple Flying, it is definitely on the cards. Let’s investigate further.
What do we know?
Next year, Qatar will host the FIFA World Cup between November 21 and December 18. This event draws huge crowds from all around the world, and, more often than not, Mexican people tend to fill the stadiums.
Moreover, there’s an area of opportunity when it comes to connecting Mexico and the Middle East. So far, only one carrier (Emirates) has scheduled flights between these two regions, connecting Dubai and Mexico City via Barcelona. Emirates will resume its connectivity on July 2.
But, there’s no direct route that flies to Qatar, and Qatar Airways could be the answer to that. Earlier this week, the Mexican Tourism secretary, Miguel Torruco, had a meeting with Qatar’s ambassador in Mexico, Mohammed Alkuwari.
He broke the news regarding the possible fifth freedom flight between Doha and Mexico via Milan.
Entre los temas que tratamos en esta reunión destacan:
• Relaciones bilaterales entre #Qatar y México.
• Posibles acciones de promoción para incrementar el flujo de turistas entre ambos países.
•Posible Quinta Libertad para la ruta Milán-CDMX por @qatarairways. pic.twitter.com/aIcG27t9H4— MiguelTorrucoMarqués (@TorrucoTurismo) June 22, 2021
Meanwhile, the Qatar Embassy in Mexico City told Simple Flying,
“All we have so far is the negotiations; there’s nothing concrete. Everything is under the scope of the Government and the airport authorities in Mexico City.”
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An underserved market
While the FIFA World Cup would be an excellent platform to launch the route Doha-Mexico City, we don’t expect that segment to be the golden goose for Qatar. Instead, the route Mexico-Milan could very well be.
Currently, no airlines are flying directly between Mexico and Italy. Aeromexico hasn’t flown to Rome for years. The last carrier to connect between both countries was Alitalia, but that has also stopped now.
As of June 2021, 14 carriers have scheduled flights between Europe and Mexico, none from Italy. They have 84 operations per week to Mexico City and Cancun. Aeromexico leads with 20 flights per week to Madrid (ten), Amsterdam (five), and Paris (five).
Fifth freedom is a controversial topic in Mexico
Launching fifth freedom flights is something that raises eyebrows across Mexico. The last time an airline announced a route using this legal maneuver, there was a huge backlash. Of course, we are talking about Emirates with the Dubai-Barcelona-Mexico City route in 2019.
During those days, Aeromexico and the Mexican pilots union (ASPA) tried everything they could to stop Emirates from launching its route. Aeromexico even announced a Mexico City-Barcelona route (while canceling its flight to Shanghai, China); as of June 2021, the Mexican carrier is not flying to the Catalonian city due to the COVID-19 impact.
Meanwhile, ASPA said that the routes between Mexico and Spain should only be operated by Mexican and Spanish airlines. The union claimed that Emirates could stop in Barcelona, but it shouldn’t be able to pick up new passengers. Nevertheless, the claims were discarded, and Emirates launched its route.
So far, there has been no backlash regarding Qatar’s intentions. Nevertheless, we expect there could be some controversy as the dates get nearer.
Would you be interested in flying between Doha and Mexico City? Let us know in the comments.
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