Delta and Aeromexico will fight the U.S. Transportation Department's order to break up their joint venture.
The airlines filed a petition on Oct. 10 with the Eleventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta, asking for a review of the order, which commands a breakup by Jan. 1. If the airlines don't win, they will lose their antitrust immunity and legal authority to jointly schedule and price flights between the U.S. and Mexico.
Delta said that within the next few days, both carriers will ask the court for a stay of the order, pending the outcome of the court’s review. Delta called the petition "our only option at this point in time and procedurally the next step in the process to protect Delta's and Aeromexico’s business interests, global networks and customers."
Delta and Aeromexico "are inextricably one business in the transborder market operating for the benefit of U.S. consumers," Delta added. "Unwinding the joint venture by the Jan. 1 deadline would be operationally and financially burdensome."
The DOT has argued that the Delta-Aeromexico joint venture violates the Open Skies pact between the U.S. and Mexico. The DOT objects to Mexico's tighter capacity reductions placed on Mexico City’s main airport, Benito Juarez, in 2022 and 2023, as well as Mexico’s termination of cargo service at the airport in 2023, forcing Mexico City cargo flights to be moved to the new Felipe Angeles Airport outside of the city.
With Delta and Aeromexico accounting for nearly 60% of U.S.-Mexico flights at Benito Juarez, the flight reductions Mexico imposed there create unacceptable harm to consumers, the DOT reasoned.