By Kylie Madry

MEXICO CITY (Reuters – Mexico’s low-cost airline Volaris is looking to lure people with lower incomes who prefer to travel by bus. It plans to use a larger number of Mexican cities as a major incentive, and a greater variety of airports close to Mexico City.

Holger Blankenstein (executive vice president at Volaris) said that the planned campaign of Mexico’s biggest airline aims to highlight how near travelers are to Mexico City airports. It is part of a bus-switching strategy to help them get out of buses and onto planes.

This campaign reminds us of the dominance of long-distance buses in Latin America. It is an industry that competes with many airlines, and which has also spawned a few such as in VivaAerobus.

Volaris believes it’s also a way to take advantage of the newly opened Mexico City airport, which President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has previously declared a success but is largely empty.

Felipe Angeles International Airport (AIFA) opened its doors in March. It was designed to ease pressure on Mexico City International Airport(AICM), which has been a longstanding hub for the city of 21,000,000.

However, there are only a few flights each day at this new airport. The site was once home to a military base.

Mexico’s government has announced that flights will be moving to the AIFA from Mexico in May after several incidents including one near-crash at its international airport.

Blankenstein stated, “If you take a look at the captive audience… 5,000,000 people live closer the the AIFA than the AICM.”

Mexico City is the location of the new airport. Residents living outside the official borders tend to make less money than those who live in the metropolitan area, which, according to statistics, has the highest income per capita. Mexico State is home to 15% Mexico’s least fortunate citizens.

Many people who live near the AIFA prefer to travel by bus, according to several airline executives.

Blankenstein stated that around 100 million people use long-distance busses each year. This is twice the number of passengers currently using air travel.

He stated, “In Mexico,” once you have taken flight for the first times in your life, it is considered a part of the middle classes.