ONTARIO >> An airport already fraught with contention over its ownership may now see two of its airlines pitted against each other.
Volaris, a Mexican discount carrier, is starting service tonight — twice a week — from L.A./Ontario International Airport to Guadalajara, which puts it in direct competition with AeroMexico which offers flights to the same destination.
With ONT struggling to not only gain traffic but retain it — losing about 40 percent during the recession — the two airlines will now compete for a limited market, said Jack Keady, a Playa Del Rey consultant.
“They are hurting themselves. They are going to split a finite market,” Keady said. “The carrier with the deeper pockets will win, in which case the loser might be Ontario.”
The inaugural flight to ONT will be at 11 p.m. The first flight from ONT to Guadalajara will depart at 12:40 a.m. Friday, arriving in Guadalajara at 5:30 a.m. The twice-weekly flights from ONT will be on Sundays and Thursdays.
Volaris’ arrival is also significant because it is the first new carrier since 2007 for ONT.
“It’s going to be a very tough battle, only the airline that offers low fares and relies on having advertising,” will be successful, Keady said.
Jess Romo, manager for ONT and Van Nuys airports, sees things differently. Volaris, Romo said, has conducted its own research, which found another carrier can be supported at ONT.
“There is some overlap but they are distinct service. People will have their brand loyalty and they will tend to use one or the other,” Romo said. “With the number of Latinos in the Inland Empire who don’t want to fight crowds in LAX, they can choose ONT.”
San Bernardino County is considered by Volaris to be “a transborder” destination with larger Mexican populations. According to the carrier, there are 1.7 million in San Bernardino County.
Similarly, AeroMexico officials referred to their own data results when it resumed daily flights to Guadalajara in October. A study conducted by the airline found that resuming daily service at the Ontario airport is important to serving the Hispanic market in the Inland Empire.
“Ontario has always been an important route for us,” said Giancarlo Mulinelli, a regional sales director for AeroMexico, in October. “The Hispanic community is huge here. We understand there is a lot of opportunity for growth.”
The airlines can also pull in travelers beyond county lines and into the High Desert and San Gabriel Valley, Romo said.
In fact, Romo is hopeful this introduction of flights will lead to an increased presence to include more frequency of service or added destinations. It is what the carrier has already done at other airports, including LAX, he said.
It leads Keady to wonder who Volaris will market to and what is their target audience.
“If I want to go Mexico, I’m not going to think about Ontario,” he said. “Nationals wanting to go to Mexico will fly out of carriers that go to LAX.”
One reason is because Guadalajara is not necessarily a travel destination. If they were looking to go to a coastal community they would have to then get a connection to their final destination, Keady said.
How is that going to help you get travelers, “we’ve all heard about AeroMexico, who knows Volaris?” he asked.
“It has to be more than lip service,” Keady said.
ONT does have a new program meant to promote new service through broadcast and print media. The Airline Cooperative Marketing Program matches up to 50 percent of an airline’s marketing proposal. Volaris expressed interest in the program but has not signed up for it to date, Romo said. He believes the airline might be interested in the program as summer approaches. A lot of Volaris’ ticket sales will happen through word of mouth, which it already has done in the past — successfully — at other airports, Romo said.
The Latino market is very price sensitive, and even if there is a $20 difference between flights in LAX and ONT, Keady said it is likely they will go with the cost savings option especially if they are buying tickets for the family.
Volaris has to make itself attractive, he said.
“It’s the downfall of many carriers at Ontario,” Keady said, pointing to low-cost carrier ExpressJet which stopped flying out of ONT after 2007.
To help the service work, Keady said Volaris should be reaching out to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Ontario’s mayor and even the visitors bureau. Get them to take a flight, as a publicity move, to bring attention to the service.
It also highlights another issue, Keady said.
“Periodic service is a tough one to sell,” he said, alluding to the fact that there are only two flights a week.
Not having daily service means a traveler might not find a flight that is convenient for them at ONT and the next time they look for flights they will choose another airport.
When AeroMexico announced daily service from ONT, it said that there is a demand there for it but only a couple of months later those flights were reduced to several times a week. Romo has said the airline plans to return to daily service for the summer.
Until today, AeroMexico had not only been the lone international service out of ONT but the only carrier to serve the Hispanic market in the Inland Empire.
“We understand the Hispanic market keeps growing and that there’s going to be competition that we can’t worry about,” Mulinelli said in October.
For Keady, it’s a pattern he’s seen at other outlying airports who have tried, unsuccessfully, to bring service to their airports.
“Airlines find it is tough to make it work,” he said. “My prediction, it may not work. We’ll see which airlines drops fares low enough. Only time will tell.”
