Mexican air carrier comes to Portland to take on buses
Portland this week became the latest territory to participate in the international expansion of Mexico's second-largest airline.
Yet according to the CEO of Mexico City-based Volaris (NYSE: VLRS), it's the bus companies that should be scared.
Volaris on Monday debuted its new three-times-a-week direct air service between Guadalajara and Portland International Airport, an event marked by celebrations with Port of Portland executives and a mariachi band. The eight-year-old airline has grown into the No. 2 spot among Mexico's airlines on the strength of low-cost fares and by flooding its home market with service to 36 cities, surpassing No. 1 carrier Aeromexico in domestic destinations.
This year it embarked upon an international expansion strategy focused heavily on West Coast markets. Portland, its 17th international market, is its only Northwest stop, thanks largely a population of 3.9 million people of whom 12.3 percent are of Hispanic descent.
CEO Enrique J. Beltranena, in an interview Tuesday with the Business Journal, said Washington County and Multnomah County each have more than 80,000 Latino residents, with another 76,000 to the south in Marion County. It's a population that makes frequent trips to visit family back home, he said.
Just not by plane.
“People are using buses to get to San Francisco and some of them were connecting through regional hubs of U.S. carriers," Beltranena said. "Because of tradition, they haven’t switched to an aircraft. In a lot of cases, they put their relatives into a bus and tell them not to step down until they see another relative on the other end of the line.”
That routine is viewed as an opportunity by Volaris. It’s pushing a message, largely through social media, that its fares are comparable to that of bus lines, especially if passengers book their travel plans in advance.
