Deal with Volaris won't start until 2010

Southwest Airlines, which last summer announced a deal to sell code-share flights to Canada, is now planning a similar service to Mexico. Southwest said it has entered into a partnership agreement with the Mexican carrier Volaris, a two-year-old company with a fleet of 18 Airbus A319s and 320s. “The airlines are not ready to announce routes, schedules or fares at this point,” Southwest said, “but the agreement will eventually allow each carrier to check both customers and baggage to a passenger’s final destination.” One of the main reasons they can’t announce schedules yet -- and perhaps the reason you’ve never heard of Volaris—is that the Mexican airline currently has no routes to the U.S., although it is reportedly planning to start flying across the border sometime in 2009. It does swerve a network of 39 routes within Mexico, however, and Southwest said it expects to announce details of the code-sharing partnership “by early 2010.” In July, Southwest announced that it plans to begin code-sharing late next year with Canada’s WestJet on routes across the Canadian border and within Canada.