Government's Business Competition Commission Accuses Airline Holding Company Cintra of Monopolistic Practices

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The government's anti-monopoly commission (Comision Federal de Competencia, CFC) has filed a series of lawsuits against Mexico's airline holding company Corporacion Internacional de Transporte (Cintra) for anti-competitive practices.

The commission alleges that Cintra, the parent company of Aeromexico and Mexicana, has raised prices 30% by eliminating flights from some markets. Most eliminated routes have involved Mexicana flights, the complaint said.

"What we are seeing are very high profits in areas where there is no competition, the profit of a monopoly," CFC president Fernando Sanchez Ugarte said in early October.

The CFC complaints are directed primarily at the Aeromexico and Mexicana operations, even though Cintra also owns regional carriers Aeroliteral, Aerocaribe, and Aerocozumel, and cargo airline Aeromexpress Cargo.

Cintra was created by Mexican creditor banks in 1995 to replace bankrupt Aerovias de Mexico as the parent company …