American Airlines and Finnair have amended their codeshare agreement, resulting in the Finnish carrier placing its code on American Airlines flights to seven Mexican destinations.
In a Department of Transportation ( DOT) filing on November 5, American Airlines and Finnair jointly informed the government agency that the two airlines will extend their codeshare agreement to include 13 Mexican destinations.
As a result, Finnair would place its airline code – AY – on flights operated by American Airlines or American Eagle from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) to 13 airports in Mexico.
The filing noted that these destinations are not covered under the Open Skies agreement, adding that these services will begin no earlier than 30 days from the date of the notice.
“These codeshare services are in the public interest and fully consistent with the Air Transport Agreement Between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the United Mexican States […].”
The 13 airports in Mexico are Guanajuato International Airport (BJX), Cancun International Airport (CUN), Cozumel International Airport (CZM), Guadalajara International Airport (GDL), Mexico City International Airport Benito Juárez (MEX), Mérida International Airport (MID), Monterrey International Airport (MTY), Oaxaca International Airport (OAX), Puerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR), Queretaro International Airport (QRO), Los Cabos International Airport (SJD), General Francisco Javier Mina International Airport (TAM), and Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo International Airport (ZIH).
On October 21, Finnair announced that it would add more frequencies to several destinations in the US, including Dallas-Fort Worth, during the summer season in 2025.
The Finnish carrier plans to grow from six weekly frequencies to 11 while also flying daily to Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD) and adding two weekly flights each to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA).
Christine Rovelli, the chief revenue officer (CRO) of Finnair, said that increasing capacity to the US will bring connectivity benefits for its passengers traveling to North America.
The CRO added that travelers will be able to connect to onward destinations by utilizing American Airlines' extensive network in Chicago or Dallas or access the West Coast and Hawaii through Los Angeles and Seattle via American Airlines or Alaska Airlines.
Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, and Finnair are all part of the oneworld airline alliance, with the former also recently acquiring Hawaiian Airlines.
Data from the aviation analytics company Cirium showed that Finnair had served the Mexican market briefly, with seasonal services during the winter seasons in 2017 and 2018.
In November 2017, Finnair began flying from Helsinki Airport (HEL) to Puerto Vallarta International Airport (PVR) once per week, operating the itinerary with an Airbus A350-900.
The airline continued to fly the route until February 2018. It briefly restarted the seasonal service to Puerto Vallarta between December 2018 and February 2019 before ultimately exiting the Mexican market.
Nevertheless, with the extended codeshare agreement with American Airlines, Finnair’s customers will have access to the US carrier’s 283 weekly departures from Dallas-Fort Worth to the 13 Mexican airports in June 2025.
The airline’s busiest itineraries from the Texan airport during the month are scheduled to be to Cancun (49 weekly departures), Monterrey (42), and San José del Cabo (35).
