Volaris Airlines picks Oakland, but still interested in San Jose

Volaris Airlines, a low-cost Mexican airline that has announced it will initiate service to the United States through Oakland and Los Angeles, is apparently still interested in coming to San Jose by 2010.

Officials of the airline visited Mineta San Jose International Airport in January when scouting sites for its maiden service between the U.S. and Toluca Airport near Mexico City and Guadalajara, Mexico's second-largest city.

Though Volaris submitted an application this week to the U.S. Department of Transportation to begin service to and from Oakland International Airport and Los Angeles International Airport, San Jose is still under consideration, according to airport officials.

Earlier this month, Volaris announced it would begin service in and out of Ft. Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport in Florida in June.

William Sherry, director of aviation for city-owned Mineta San Jose airport, said he remains optimistic the region's third-busiest airport will be in the airline's second wave of expansion.

Like airport officials nationwide coping with the recession and various airline industry travails, Mineta San Jose officials could use some good news. Passenger volume at the airport decreased from 10.7 million in 2007 to 9.7 million last year, while the number of daily flight has slipped from 190 in September 2007 to 145 today.

Santa Clara County is considered a strong potential market for Volaris because it has 400,000 residents of Mexican descent, or 22 percent of its population. That's the largest percentage of Mexicans or Mexican-Americans of any Bay Area county, including Oakland's home county of Alameda County.

Alameda, however, does have the second-highest percentage of residents of Hispanic descent in the region and Oakland's Fruitvale district has been transformed from a largely black community to one that is predominantly Mexican.

At present, Mineta San Jose airport has 12 weekly flights to Mexico, with Mexicana Airlines operating 10 flights a week to Guadalajara and twice a week to Morelia, the capital of the state of Michoacan. The airline dropped service to Mexico City two years ago.

To smooth its entry into the U.S., Volaris has established a cooperative arrangement with Southwest Airlines, the dominant carrier at Mineta San Jose and Oakland airports. It allows passengers to book flights on either carrier through the other.