I have not been paid by any entity in any way (financially, benefits) to write the following post. Any airport, airline, lounge, and/or loyalty program policies may have changed since then.
Delta Air Lines is expanding its operations at Austin Bergstrom Airport as it seeks to make the Texas capital city a focus city, adding McAllen to its list of destinations out of Austin, starting April 22, 2024. This McAllen to Austin route will be served by Delta Connection, operated by Endeavor and SkyWest. This move is interesting, as it will position Delta to compete directly with Southwest, which has a Harlingen to Austin route.
Furthermore, this makes McAllen the recipient of two SkyTeam airlines, as AeroMexico announced their intention to start flying daily from McAllen to Mexico City’s Felipe Angeles Airport starting February 1, 2024. This means McAllen will have the following destinations:
- Houston Intercontinental (IAH) – United Airlines/Star Alliance
- Dallas/Ft. Worth (DFW) – American Airlines/oneworld
- Las Vegas (LAS) – Allegiant
- Mexico City Felipe Angeles (NLU) – AeroMexico Connect/SkyTeam
- Austin Bergstrom (AUS) – Delta Connection/SkyTeam
This exciting dynamic gives RGV flyers more opportunities to connect globally across all three alliances. This is particularly good news for SkyTeam flyers, as the only SkyTeam route that existed was the regional Harlingen to Minneapolis route on Delta. Now, you can connect to the global SkyTeam network with KLM from Austin to Amsterdam. Regarding the AeroMexico route, the flight will land at Mexico City’s secondary airport, which is removed and primarily serves smaller and shorter routes.
This means that flying to Mexico City will open up many domestic Mexican destinations but will not open up AeroMexico and SkyTeam’s global network out of Mexico City’s Benito Juarez Airport, which is served by KLM and Air France, among others.
Will you be flying Delta or AeroMexico? Are you excited about these new routes? Let me know!
As always, Live Life One Trip at a Time!