IN THE WAKE OF AEROMEXES DEPARTURE, EVASIVENESS, FALSE HOPE

By Juan Montoya

The coming of direct flights to Mexico City were heralded in Brownsville with much ballyhoo by incoming Mayor Tony Martinez during his first months in office. At the time, city officials pulled out all the PR stops an hailed the coming of the airline and extended their generous incentives for the Mexican airline to provide the service.
This was the feather on Mayor Martinez's cap, a crowning achievement, a homerun at his first time at bat.
Now, for the past month, local resident trying to board a direct flight from Brownsville to Mexico City were rebuffed by the reservation desk telling them that flights have been cancelled "indefinitely."
Why was there no fanfare to announce the airline was leaving just as they made the announcement it was coming? Instead of a homerun, it curved foul and went out of the park. But there's hope, economic development gurus say, that it will be coming back sometime in the near future. We have our doutbts. Mexican media are reporting that 14,000 of AeroMexico's flight attendants have threatened to go on strike for better wages and working conditions. So don;t hold your breath. You might as well got to McAllen if you want a direct flight to Mexico City in the coming months.
And as far as the $500,000 promised by the Brownsville Economic Development Council to entice AeroMexico to stay here, BEDC spokesman Gil (I though it was Gilberto) Salinas told the local daily that none had been spent "to date."
Just what does that mean Gil? Does it mean you haven't spent it, have not authorized it, have not paid the invoices, or not committed it at all? None has been spent "to date" is at best, evasive, and at worst, fishy.

The AeroMexico flights started in July 2011 and the airline promised to provide nonstop passenger service between Brownsville and Monterrey, Mexico, to fly at least through Sept. 18 in order to test the market. The airline announced that it would provide that service until September 2012 — plus add a Wednesday flight to its once-a-day Friday and Sunday flights. The airline had been courted by city officials after Fly Frontera – a charter service – was denied the incentives to establish service to Mexico City and northern Mexico.

All it took, said a cheerful article in the newspaper at the time, was candy money from the city to elicit AeroMexico's interest here. 

The GBIC, based on a recommendation from the BEDC, voted to approve subsidies of up to $500,000 for a year to help AeroMexico get established. In addition, GBIC pledged $100,000 for marketing and promoting the Brownsville-to-Monterrey service on both sides of the border.

The hope, Salinas said, is that heavy promotion on the front end will translate into robust ticket sales and therefore less dependency on subsidies. The amount of subsidies ultimately spent could be from “zero to $500,000,” he said. AeroMexico’s bookings have been very solid so far, Salinas said.

 The airline was guranteed money, or rather, a guarantee of subsidies if flights didn’t reach a given “load factor” that ensures they’re profitable.

But now that the money is gone, so is AeroMexico. Brownsville has been very generous to industry giants like American and Continental airlines to come to Brownsville, though both carriers have been weaned as their Brownsville flights have become established.

“We were a city with an international airport with no service to anywhere,” Salinas said. “In the mid-’90s we finally got connectivity with Houston. It’s worked twice, and we’re pretty confident it’s going to work for the third time, but it’s on Brownsville. It goes hand in hand with what (Mayor Tony Martinez) has been pitching the last few weeks: Everybody in Brownsville should fly Brownsville. If we truly believe in Brownsville let’s go out there and make this airport the airport that it should be. The airport is a significant economic driver for this community and this region."

As usual, Gil has been proven wrong once again.

Brownsville, he said, now provided nonstop service to three major hubs — Dallas, Houston and now Monterrey, and it was something to brag about, he said.

At the time, he said that Brownsville is the only city in South Texas, aside from San Antonio, offering nonstop service to Monterrey. The goal, he said, was to make sure AeroMexico and the other airlines make money and stay put. Salinas said the airport is a vital economic driver for the city and the region.

Also quoted in the article at the time was Wonder Boy Michael Jones, business development director for Brownsville South Padre Island International Airport. He credited his efforts after much heavy lifting and claimed that having AeroMexico greatly expands the airport’s “catchment area,” or the distance flyers will travel to use an airport. Jones said he’d been working on AeroMexico to come to Brownsville for some time.
“It took me six years to convince them to fly here,” he said. “Their initial fear was that it would hurt Matamoros. They’ve finally accepted that it’s two separate markets. We’re very proud that these six years of work have paid off.”

The most that the BEDC will divulge is that the beside the $500,000 from BEDC, the city also authorized $175,000 to market the Brownsville-Monterey servie here and in Mexico. The airline was also given $44,000 to market itself in its home nation of Mexico (what?).
Of the marketing funds, $100,000 went to the Breeden McCumber ad agency who seemingly hold a monopoly on City of Brownsville advertising contracts from Charro Days to, well, AeroMexico.
We have filed information requests from City Hall for a breakdown of the monies spent by BEDC, the city, and the vendors for the past two or three weeks. So far, the info has not been forthcoming and we thank the Herald for its news report. At least they let someone know what's happening there.