During a town hall meeting with employees, Allegiant Air’s chief executive noted that the priorities for the airline, as well as for Viva, have shifted, as both carriers are undergoing consolidation with other airlines in their respective countries.
Sun Country Airlines is the priority
During a town hall meeting last week, the transcript of which is available publicly, Greg Anderson, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Allegiant Air, and other airline executives shared more details about the merger with Sun Country Airlines with their employees.
Responding to a question about Allegiant Air’s joint venture (JV) with Mexico-based low-cost carrier Viva, Anderson said that while the merger with Sun Country Airlines has not changed its interest in working with the Mexican airline, the CEO said that “our priority is the Sun Country transaction here.”
“Viva also recently announced a deal with Volaris, which will be their focus. I also want to mention too that the Sun Country acquisition, it is going to accelerate international opportunities for us at Allegiant in our communities.”
That includes Mexico, Anderson added. Still, the chief executive noted that over time, Allegiant Air will “reassess what the right path forward is with Viva.”
Rytis Beresnevicius
Stuck in limbo
However, with the Department of Transportation (DOT) remaining unsatisfied about the decisions made by the Government of Mexico, including the forced move of all-cargo operations from Mexico City International Airport (MEX) to Felipe Ángeles International Airport (NLU), as well as allegations of an anticompetitive slot regime at MEX, the Allegiant-Viva joint venture is stuck in limbo.
Even with the change in administrations, the pendulum has not moved. After the DOT suspended its review of the JV in July 2023, the two airlines requested that the Department resume the approval procedures for the tie-up in April 2025.
The DOT has not publicly responded to the filing.
At the same time, the DOT’s decisions have also affected the Delta Air Lines-Aeromexico JV, ending the venture’s antitrust immunity (ATI) in September 2025. Then, the Department argued that the Mexican government’s actions, namely, “market intervention and distortion that adversely affects competition in the US-Mexico air services market and is contrary to the US-Mexico Air Transport Agreement,” make it “inappropriate” to continue granting ATI to the two carriers’ JV.
The two airlines sued, securing a stay motion in November 2025, with the DOT having previously set a deadline to dismantle the partnership by January 1, 2026.
On February 18, Delta Air Lines and Aeromexico argued before the US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit that the DOT’s response to the lawsuit confirmed that its decision to suspend ATI for their partnership “selectively ignored key issues, repeatedly relied on self-contradictory reasoning, and cast aside readily available alternatives to reach the Department’s predetermined objective – disapproving the Delta-Aeroméxico Joint Venture.”
As such, the two airlines concluded that the DOT’s failure to defend its “flawed decision” is “sufficient to require vacatur, a point the Department does not dispute.”
In response to the Delta Air Lines-Aeromexico’s JV’s legal issues, Allegiant Air and Viva said that while they agree that the US-Mexico market is “highly liberalized” and “strong and fertile for further growth,” the market lacks “meaningful” low-cost competition “on many routes, especially those to beach destinations in Mexico.”
Thus, the DOT should “engage in a fact-based statutory analysis of the proposed Allegiant-Viva joint venture, as it is doing for Delta and Aeromexico.”
Allegiant Air and Viva unveiled their partnership in December 2021.
Rytis Beresnevicius
