New low-cost airline being planned in Mexico

Ryanair Holdings Plc founder Tony Ryan plans to set up a low-cost airline in Mexico together with a local company.

According to media reports, Ryan will make the investment through his family’s investment firm, Irelandia Investments Ltd. Inversionistas en Autotransportes Mexicanos SA, a Mexican bus company, is Ryan’s local partner.

“Ryan joins Mexican billionaires Carlos Slim and Emilio Azcárraga in seeking to profit from a market that may double to 40 million passengers in as few as three years, according to the Mexican government. Slim and Azcárraga are backing a budget airline set to begin flying March 1. Two other startup carriers, Interjet and Avolar, started operations last year,” according to eluniversal.com.mx.

“The potential is Mexico is huge,” Damian Fraser, head of Latin America equity research at UBS AG reportedly said. “There´s a lot of people here paying US$40, US$50 for a bus ticket which is roughly what profitable low-cost airlines charge for a plane ticket in many parts of the world.”